Easy and healthy! This is how you make your pumpkin soup!
We all have those days when you just don’t feel like cooking. Even I, while I am such a foodfreak, sometimes have those days. I however managed to teach myself to not give into having a ready-made meal at those moments. Aside from the crazy amount of salt and E-numbers I simply just don’t find them very appetizing. That’s why I sometimes would make a huge pot of soup. I would then freeze all of it, but of course you could cheat a little by having some of it right after it’s finished. This way, you will always have a healthy and delicious dish ready to be eaten!
Combine the soup with pita, naan, desem or spelt bread. Right before serving, garnish the soup with mint, (flat-leaved) parsley or coriander! This soep is really delicious and ready to be eaten in just a couple of minutes. Aaand of course, it is super healthy because of all the vitamins.
A perfect task to do for the weekend!
Benodigdheden (voor 2 liter)
– 1 small organic (!!!) pumpkin;
– 1 big carrot;
– 2 shallots;
– 3 cloves of garlic;
– 1 Spanish hot pepper;
– 1 can of coconut milk (here I used 50 gram of coconut cream santen);
– 1 (vegetable) stock cube;
– 1 lemongrass stem;
– 1 piece of ginger with the size of a thumb;
– 1 lime;
– Salt & pepper; and
– (Hand) Blender.
Let’s get to work!
Cut the shallots, the garlic, the Spanish hot pepper and the ginger. You can just do this real quickly and roughly since it will all be pureed with the blender anyways.
The reason that I have put three exclamation marks behind “organic” in the ingredient list is because you don’t have to peel organic pumpkins. Pfffff, it was such a relief when I heard that because I have gotten my hands covered with cuts and wounds after preparing a pumpkin way too often. Therefore, buy an organic pumpkin.
Remove the inside of the pumpkin. You can by the way save the pumpkin seeds if you want. The pumpkin seeds are delicious with salads or just on anything really when you’re having breakfast. It’s also great to top your pumpkin soup with roasted pumpkin seeds. Anyhow, after removing the seeds cut the pumpkin in big pieces. Peel the big carrot and also cut in big pieces. Measure about a liter of hot or boiling water and set aside. Cut the lemongrass through the middle.
Heat up a big pan on the stove and put in some olive or coconut oil. First add the hot pepper, garlic, ginger and onion. Fry it until the onions are translucent (after about 2 or 3 min) and add the pumpkin and carrot. Continue frying for a couple of minutes, then add a little bit of water. Add some more water after about 4 minutes; make sure that the vegetables AREN’T completely submerged. Add the santen/coconut milk and vegetable stock. Alll ready, now let it cook for about 15 to 20 min.
After 15 to 20 min you can take the pan off the heat. Remove the lemongrass, but don’t throw them away. Grab the hand mixer and puree away! I wrote down one liter of hot/boiling water, but honestly I never use the exact same amount. It just so happens that the soup would sometimes be a little bit thicker than other times and will need some more water. On average it still is one liter though. Add the water a little by little and keep pureeing it until it has the perfect consistency for you. Lastly, squeeze the lime into the soup and mix well. Now it’s time to cheat a little and try some of the soup already so you can be sure that the taste is good. Mmmmm!
The rest of the soup can be poured into two containers along with the lemon grass. Once it’s completely cooled down it is ready to be stored in the freezer! Now you only have to wait until you don’t feel like cooking so that you can re-discover your healthy surprise in the freezer…
Tip: check out more delicious recipes of The Lion Kitchen on thelionkitchen.com >>
PS: did you see the other lifestyle items on Your Little Black Book yet? More things spotted by @yourLBB!
