This year two pumpkin plants  grew out of the compost bins and soon they sprawled across half the backyard. Fed by the compost they yielded 30 medium to large pumpkins that were a blessing to family and friends at harvest time. We’re down to our last four so I thought it was a perfect day to make pumpkin soup. Roasting the pumpkin brings out the natural sugars, the ground cumin and honey make the soup flavourful and the addition of the chickpeas adds to the nutrition of the dish. I hope you will enjoy it.

Roast Pumpkin and Chickpea Soup

Ingredients

• 1 kg of pumpkin
• 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 400 g can chickpeas, drained and well rinsed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C
2. Wash and halve pumpkin and cut into one  large 1 kg piece (scooping out seeds) and place in a baking pan cut side down with the skin side up.
3. Bake for 45 minutes, checking after 40 minutes and adding extra time if required.  It should be soft throughout.
4. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat and add the onion and cumin stirring it through well.
5. Cook the onion and cumin gently for 5 minutes until translucent
6. Heat the 3 cups of stock in another saucepan.
7. Dissolve the Dijon mustard and the honey into the hot stock, stirring well
8. Pour the stock over the onion and cumin in the saucepan and stir well
9. Remove the skin from the cooked pumpkin and cutting it into chunks, add to the saucepan of liquid
10. Purée the lot with a stick blender until smooth
11. Simmer for a further 6 minutes
12. Add in the rinsed chickpeas and cook for 5 minutes more

Serve with crusty bread, perhaps a lovely homemade loaf……well, that will be for a future post!

Serves 4