Middle Eastern Pumpkin Soup

Middle Eastern Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

• 4/5 cups Jap pumpkin, peeled, seeded and chopped into small pieces

• 1 cup brown lentils

• 1 large onion, peeled and roughly diced

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chilli

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 1 dessert spoon finely ground cumin

• 1 dessert spoon brown sugar

• 1 dessert spoon Garam Masala

• 2 tablespoon lime juice

• 1 cup orange juice

• Bonsoy or other soy milk or vegetable stock

• Salt to taste

• ½ cup chopped parsley

• ½ cup chopped coriander leaves

Method:

Put all ingredients (except salt, parsley and coriander leaves) into a saucepan, more than cover with water, lid the saucepan and simmer over very low heat, adding more water to keep ingredients well covered. When the pumpkin and lentils are soft, remove the saucepan from the heat. Discard the cinnamon sticks, then puree all the ingredients. Return the soup to the saucepan, stir in soy milk or the vegetable stock until the soup reaches the desired consistency. Add salt to taste. Combine parsley and coriander. Serve soup hot or cold topped with chopped parsley, coriander and fresh bread.

Pumpkin Facts

Pumpkin is a fruit because it is fleshy, contains seeds and originates from a flower. But Pumpkin leaves are a vegetable regularly eaten cooked or raw in China, rural Africa and India. The rough texture of the leaves disappears when cooked. There are many varieties of this very underrated food, too many to list on this page.

Butternut Pumpkin is a pear-shaped pumpkin with a dry texture and bright orange, mildly sweet, nutty flavoured flesh. Great for pureeing and soup.

Golden Nugget Pumpkin is a small, round pumpkin with deep orange skin and yellow flesh. Great for baking because it has a mild flavour and many seeds which can be hollowed out and stuffed.

Japanese Pumpkin (often called "Jap") is squat and ribbed, grey-green skin mottled with yellow and brown and has orange flesh. The sweet, nutty flavour is great for soups, casseroles, roasting, steaming, boiling and adding to the stir-fry.

Queensland Blue Pumpkin is a large, heavily ribbed, grey-skinned pumpkin, with a tasty deep orange flesh suitable for roasting, boiling and mashing.