Nonnie's Gourmet Butternut Pumpkin Soup

After a frenetic summer, although my use of my energy in gardening is not very efficient yet - I have managed to store away a few huge beautiful butternut pumpkins grown from seed in my garden for use in the winter.  After feeding them with worm compost a few times, after they were grown I let their skins harden in the very strong New Zealand summer sun for a few weeks before storing them.

Today, I went down to my food storage room in the basement and found the largest one, after returning home from work, and made butternut pumpkin soup.  When cooked with some ginger, chicken stock I had made myself (was stored frozen), with spices added, a few vegetables from the fridge (a leek, a carrot), a bit of sauteed garlic and onion,  a dash of curry spices, and a small chunk of cream cheese melted in it - salted with natural mineral sea salt - it was awesome.  

As I cut the pumpkin up - the colour was bright orange, showing alot of good vitamin/food content.




Nonnie's Gourmet Butternut Pumpkin Soup

Cut up 1 large butternut pumpkin into chunks, and add to a huge pot partway with water, and some chicken stock, after the water boils.  (Try not to use too much water, so you don't have to pour too much nutrition away at the end.)

Cut up most of 1 leek (or whatever good green veggies you have in your fridge) and add to pot.

Cut up 1 carrot, add to pot.  

Peel a large chunk of ginger and throw it into the pot (to be retrieved later).

Put the lid on, for it to boil until soft.  

THEN cut up 1 onion, 1 large garlic clove, and a few slices of a hot pepper (I used a few slices from a large jalapeno pepper I had grown in my garden) and fry in oil until soft.

When the pumpkin and veggies are soft as well, it's basically ready to go.  Turn the elements off.  Take a look at the boiled pumpkin and veggies - guess how much water you should pour off so the soup won't be too runny.  (I would save the liquid you pour off in case you pour off too much.  This water has vitamins from the veggies in it - so it's better to add it back rather than new water.)  Then add the garlic/onion/chili mixture to the boiled veggies.  Fish the ginger chunk out.  Sprinkle curry spice across the top of the whole thing.  Throw in a few pinches of sea salt.  Now just blender it all up, one blenderful at a time - ladelling it in.

Pour the blendered soup into a different pot, adding a chunk of cream cheese to melt in the hot, new, vibrant and healthy orange spicy butternut pumpkin soup!  I put some coriander leaves on the top of each bowl of soup, and served with buttered soft white bread.