Saturday 2 October 2010

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup

picture from helloecoliving.com

A number of people commented about my pumpkin and sweet potato soup...that it sounded yummy...that it sounded interesting.  Well, it is indeed both of those things.  Especially when served with straight-out-of-the-oven homemade bread rolls.  It's one of those soups that is so ridiculously easy to make that serving it for guests seems almost wrong.  And yet when you serve it to guests they exclaim over how wonderful it is.  Even my kids, who have aversions to either pumpkin or sweet potato love this soup.  Are you ready to give your guests a treat without spending hours upon hours over a complicated feast?  Here you go....the recipe:

Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup

1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil, peeled and diced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1/2 butternut pumpkin
 chicken stock  ~ about 1.5 litres in all
  1. Warm the olive oil in a large pot and add the onion and garlic.  Saute until the onion has softened and become translucent.
  2. Add the pumpkin and sweet potato to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes, whilst stirring.
  3. Pour the stock into the pot.  Use just enough to barely cover the vegetables at this point, or the soup will be too thin!  Cook for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
  4. Turn the heat off.  Using a stab blender, blend the soup until smooth. If the soup is too thick, add some boiled water a little at a time until you're happy with the consistency.
  5. Served with a swirl of cream and fresh buttered bread.
I've used liquid stock for this recipe and I've used powdered.  Both work just fine and only the pickiest most discerning guest will be able to tell the difference.

And just for reference for those who have different names for things, here are some pictures:

Stab Blender

Butternut Pumpkin

2 comments:

Pom Pom said...

I wish I could find butternut pumpkin here. I had some delicious roasted pumpkin when I visited friends in Sydney.

Tracy said...

PomPom, any really sweet variety of pumpkin will work. I use butternut because of that, and the fact that it is really to peel.