Pumpkin & Cardamom Soup
Today I’ve prepared a recipe for the popular cream of pumpkin soup. Naturally, I had to tweak it a little with some yummy ingredients. 🙂 But it’s not the soup I want to write about, it’s one of the key ingredients here: cardamom. You may wonder how to use this spice and my answer is easy: it works well in all kinds of recipes! It is a great addition to desserts, such as fruit mousse, as well as savoury dishes which you can find in Indian cuisine.
Preparation
I peeled the potatoes and the pumpkin, then I took out the pumpkin flesh, diced it and cooked in the stock. I chopped the onion and the garlic, and grated the ginger. Then I slightly fried the onion with garlic and ginger in a pan with olive oil, transferred them to the soup along with the coconut milk and blended it all until smooth. Next, I seasoned the soup with the spices – they are the crucial ingredients here. 🙂 I toasted the seeds in a dry pan and sprinkled them over each serving of the soup.
Why Hokkaido pumpkin and why the skin can stay
Hokkaido is the variety that makes this soup easy: its flesh is dense and sweet rather than watery, so the soup thickens without flour or cream, and its skin is thin enough to eat. Leave it on and you save the hardest part of the preparation; peel it only if you want a paler, smoother colour. Other pumpkins work, but the watery ones need less stock or the soup comes out thin.
The potatoes are not filler either. They are what gives the soup body once it is blended, which is why a pumpkin soup made without them often tastes like seasoned juice.
Spices at the end, seeds toasted dry
Turmeric and cardamom go in after blending, off the strongest heat. Ground spices fried for long turn dusty and bitter, and cardamom in particular loses its scent within a minute of hard boiling, which is the whole reason it is in this soup. A teaspoon is plenty: it is a strong spice and it takes over a pot quickly.
Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry pan, no oil, until they start to pop and smell nutty, then take them off immediately. They go on each portion at the table rather than into the pot, because they soften within minutes in hot soup and the contrast is the point.
Consistency and keeping
Blend with the coconut milk in rather than after, and add the last of the stock only if the soup is thicker than you want. It is easier to thin a soup than to thicken one, so hold a little stock back at the blending stage.
The soup keeps three days in the fridge and thickens there; loosen it with stock or water when reheating rather than boiling it down. It also freezes well, though freeze it before the seeds go on. If you would rather have soups like this one planned into the week with a shopping list, that is what the Diet & Training by Ann app does.
Pumpkin and cardamom cream soup
Ingredients
Method
- Peel the potatoes, take out the pumpkin flesh and dice both.
- Cook them in the stock until soft.
- Chop the onion and garlic and grate the ginger, then fry them lightly in a pan with the olive oil.
- Transfer them to the soup along with the coconut milk and blend until smooth.
- Season with turmeric, cardamom, salt and pepper off the strongest heat.
- Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry pan and sprinkle them over each serving.
Notes
Frequently asked questions
No. The skin of a Hokkaido is thin enough to eat and it softens completely in the soup, so leaving it on saves the hardest part of the preparation. Peel it only if you want a paler, smoother colour.
Body. They are what gives the blended soup its consistency, which is why a pumpkin soup made without them often tastes like seasoned juice.
After blending, off the strongest heat. Cardamom loses its scent within a minute of hard boiling, and that scent is the reason it is in this soup. A teaspoon is plenty, since it takes over a pot quickly.
In a dry pan with no oil, until they start to pop and smell nutty, then straight off the heat. They go onto each portion at the table rather than into the pot, because they soften within minutes in hot soup.
Three days in the fridge, where it thickens; loosen it with stock or water when reheating rather than boiling it down. It also freezes well, before the seeds go on. Soups like this one come planned into the week with a shopping list in the Diet & Training by Ann app.
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