Jill's Recipe: Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin makes a very creamy velvety soup with a subtle flavour. Don’t worry about using the fibrous flesh - it transforms in the cooking.

Perfect for a warming supper after trick or treating on a cold winter’s night.

Ingredients:

700g pumpkin flesh

25g butter

1 medium onion – finely chopped

1 level teaspoon madras curry powder

25g flour

1 pint chicken stock

1 tablespoon tomato puree

½ pint milk

Seasoning to taste

Parsley to garnish

Method:

Peel the pumpkin, discard the seeds and cut flesh into small pieces.

Melt the butter in a large pan

Add the chopped onion and cook for about 10 minutes on a low heat until soft

Stir in the curry powder and the flour and cook for about a minute until blended

Stir in the stock a little at a time

Add the tomato puree and pumpkin and bring to the boil stirring all the time

Turn down the heat and simmer for as long as it takes for the pumpkin to be soft – anything from 30-40 minutes

Blend or sieve the mixture until smooth then add the milk and reheat gently adding seasoning to taste.

If it is too thick add more milk.

Garnish with parsley and eat with lovely thick crusty bread.