Name: Red pepper and pumpkin soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 3 red bell peppers (capsicums); 1 medium pumpkin or squash; 1 red onion; 1 clove of garlic; 1 Tbsp olive oil; 1 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes purée; 1 litre vegetable stock; Decoration: pumpkin seeds , cream or yogurt (optional)

Red pepper and pumpkin soup

26 Oct 2015

by Dinna

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

45 minutes

Total Time

55 minutes

Background

This red pepper and pumpkin soup is perfect for Halloween. You can even use up the pumpkin flesh from your Jack' O Lantern! It's quick and easy and it's very popular with kids because it's naturally sweet. You can easily decorate the soup - see the tips below. Serve the soup with crusty bread, flat-bread or scones.

Ingredients

3 red bell peppers (capsicums)
1 medium pumpkin or squash
1 red onion
1 clove of garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes purée
1 litre vegetable stock
Decoration: pumpkin seeds , cream or yogurt (optional)

Instructions

Peel & chop the onion and garlic.
Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion & garlic and cook at a low temperature until translucent.
Meanwhile, cut the pumpkin in half, scrape the seeds out, cut off the rind with a knife and dice the flesh.
De-seed the peppers and roughly chop the flesh.
When the onion is soft, add the pumpkin, pepper pieces and the tomato purée. Stir well then sweat under a lid for 10 minutes.
Pour in the vegetable broth, bring to the boil, then simmer on a low heat for 25 minutes.
Blend until smooth and silky

Tips

To create a spider web on top of the soup:

Ladle the soup into bowls then drizzle cream or yoghurt in the shape of three circles on top - one in the middle, one around the edge of the bowl and one in between the two circles.
Using a toothpick, draw lines across the circles starting from the middle point of the first circle - these lines will pull the circles towards each other, creating a spider web effect.
Add some pumpkin seeds as "spiders".