Pumpkins, who knew you could cook with them?
A mate's got me into squashes, you can just cut em up and bake em, lovely with a few other chopped veg sprayed with oil on a tray, but they also make fantastic soup, butternut is becoming a fave but today as they're now selling 'em ready for Halloween, I tried a pumpkin, about the size of a football.

Chopped, skin and innards removed (just chop the whole thing into smaller bits and deal with each part individually), you get a LOT to play with so don't worry about being too finicky with the skin removal, cup of water in the pan with a large nob of butter, on the boil and while it's going chop the rest up.

I added 2 large onions, a mild Jalapeno chopped fine, 2 chopped carrots chunky style, a yellow pepper again quite finely chopped, lotsa dill, 3 garlic cloves, 2 chopped one crushed, 3 basil leaves, and some soy sauce to taste (I always prefer it to salt), medium heat and stir it every few minutes so it doesn't stick, for approx 15-20 mins or just until it looks like soup.

At the last minute I had a brainwave and grilled 3 pieces of smoked bacon till crisp, chopped them into little strips and added them into the pot for a touch of smokiness.

The pumpkin basically melted into something resembling lentil soup, making a tasty base for all the other ingredients, I let it rest a bit before starting on it so as it wasn't so hot I can't taste it, enjoying it now, dipping in periodically, very warming, very comforting too as I have teh flu right now, I recommend it.

Wish I had some warm crusty bread, then this would be heaven. Might be on the menu for the Halloween party methinks!
( ..wil, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 21:27, 7 replies, latest was 14 years ago)

I once made a pumpkin cheesecake
it was rather fabulous.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 22:02, Reply)

or...
you could just bake it, puree it, then add some chicken stock to thin it out, some curry powder and minced onions, simmer it a bit, then put it in bowls, drizzle with some creme fraiche or sour cream and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro. mmmmmm.
(tuqueboy has been in a medically -induced coma since, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 3:19, Reply)

Pumpkin or Garlic Soup?
Sounds like a great recipe - but please clarify... is that 3 bulbs or cloves of garlic? I love the stuff but 3 bulbs might be overkill?
(Nozirrah turned left instead of right and ended up here on, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 17:11, Reply)

Good point!
I'll change that! Cheers..
( ..wil, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 18:30, Reply)

"3 bulbs might be overkill?"
seriously?
lightweight.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Sat 2 Oct 2010, 19:36, Reply)

Works really well
If you can serve it IN a pumpkin. Don't carve a face on it first though.
(Lupetherabbit Went straight into smirk mode on, Sun 10 Oct 2010, 19:04, Reply)

if u want to be lazy, microwave the large chunks of pumpkin for a minute and you should be able to pull the skin off.
Makes using pumpkin for cooking a lot easier
(heebiejeebus, Mon 11 Oct 2010, 20:22, Reply)

And for the soundtrack
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YocbxnABEmg
(Dr Skagra glorious glargzhem, Wed 13 Oct 2010, 13:32, Reply)