Sun on a plate! pumpkin and peach soup
Today we have a variation of vegetable and fruit 🙂 I give my word that soup is delicious 🙂 still based on summer colors, but with a little bit of autumn because of the autumn queen – pumpkin. I declare the pumpkin season open!
Pumpkin season is short and worth using while it lasts. It is worth adding to the diet not only because of its taste, but also because of the wealth of ingredients.
Especially valuable is a pumpkin with an intensive orange interior. The more intense the colour, the more valuable vitamins (A, B1, B2, C, PP). Moreover we can find necessary minerals, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium, as well as beta-carotene.
Preparation
Dice the pumpkin, place it on a baking tray, sprinkle with oregano and coconut oil, or olive oil. Bake for around 12-15 minutes at 170°C (340°F).
Place the pumpkin into the cooking pot, add peaches, also diced. Add coconut milk and blend it all together. If the soup is too thick, add water.
Add seasoning of your choice.
Roast the pumpkin, do not boil it
Baking is what separates this soup from the boiled kind. In the oven the pumpkin loses water and its sugars start to caramelise, so what goes into the blender is already concentrated. Boiled pumpkin gives up that flavour to the water instead, and the soup then needs cream or stock to taste of anything.
Twelve to fifteen minutes is short because the cubes are small. Cut them to roughly two centimetres and spread them in a single layer: piled up, they steam each other and come out pale and wet rather than browned at the edges. The oregano and the oil go on before baking so they roast with the pumpkin rather than sitting on top of the finished soup.
The peaches go in raw
The peaches are never cooked in this recipe, and that is the point. They are blended straight into the hot roasted pumpkin, which warms them through without dulling the fresh fruit note that makes the soup unusual. Cook them and you end up with a sweet pumpkin soup and nothing more.
They have to be ripe, because an underripe peach is sour rather than sweet and stays fibrous in the blender. Out of season, tinned peaches in juice work, drained, though they are sweeter and the chilli then has more to do. Peeling is optional: the skins blend out almost completely.
Chilli, coconut milk and the balance
A third of a teaspoon of chilli powder against 200 ml of coconut milk is what keeps this soup from turning into dessert. Pumpkin and peach are both sweet, and the coconut milk adds a third sweet note, so the heat and the salt are the only things pulling the other way.
Add the chilli after blending and taste. Its strength varies enormously between jars, and once a soup is too hot for you, the only fix is more coconut milk, which takes you back to where you started.
Consistency and keeping
The 100 ml of water in the recipe is a reserve rather than an instruction. Blend first with just the coconut milk, then add water by the tablespoon until the soup pours the way you want it. It thickens in the fridge, so make it slightly looser than you want it if you plan to reheat.
It keeps three days in the fridge and freezes well for three months. Reheat gently, because a hard boil dulls the peach. For a different pumpkin soup on the blog there is the pumpkin and cardamom version, and if you would rather have autumn dinners planned into the week with a shopping list, that is what the Diet & Training by Ann app does.
Pumpkin and peach soup
Ingredients
Method
- Dice the pumpkin, spread it on a baking tray in a single layer, sprinkle with oregano and coconut oil.
- Bake for around 12-15 minutes at 170 C (340 F), until the edges brown.
- Put the roasted pumpkin into a pot and add the diced raw peaches.
- Add the coconut milk and blend everything until smooth, loosening with water if the soup is too thick.
- Add the chilli powder and the rest of the seasoning after blending, and taste before serving.
Notes
Frequently asked questions
Roasting drives off water and starts the sugars caramelising, so what goes into the blender is already concentrated. Boiled pumpkin gives that flavour up to the water instead, and the soup then needs cream or stock to taste of anything.
No. They are blended raw into the hot roasted pumpkin, which warms them through without dulling the fresh fruit note that makes this soup different from a plain pumpkin one. They do need to be ripe, since an underripe peach stays sour and fibrous.
Yes, in juice and drained. They are sweeter than fresh ones, so the chilli has more work to do and it is worth tasting before you settle the seasoning.
Pumpkin, peach and coconut milk are all sweet, so the heat and the salt are the only things pulling the other way. Add the chilli after blending and taste as you go, because its strength varies a lot between jars.
Three days in the fridge and three months in the freezer. It thickens as it chills, so make it slightly looser than you want if you plan to reheat, and warm it gently, since a hard boil dulls the peach. Autumn dinners like this one come planned into the week with a shopping list in the Diet & Training by Ann app.
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