Pumpkin And Apple Soup for Halloween and Guy Fawkes night.
The clocks have gone back, whether you celebrate it or not, Halloween and Guy Fawkes night are around the corner. We are officially heading towards winter. I love Autumn, I love the colours and the tastes of autumn, and nothing says autumn more than pumpkin and good British apple.
This soup is ideal to have as a meal on these busy evenings, It's also great to put in a flask, to take to work. It is Gluten Free, and totally vegan.
However. If you don't want to use a whole pumpkin, because you find it difficult chop up, alternatively, you could cheat like me & buy ready, chopped, frozen Butternut squash which achieves the same creamy texture, with a quarter of the effort.
Ingredients serve 4
1 kilo pumpkin or butternut squash cut into chunks
3 apples, preferably Braeburn or Coxes orange pippins
4 shallots or 2 medium onions chopped
1 small sweet potatoes.
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 leek washed and chopped
Half an inch of fresh ginger peeled and grated.
One litre Vegetable stock.
A dessert spoon of Olive oil.
Half a cup Of plant milk,
Half a teaspoon each of, good quality sea salt, black pepper, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, chilli flakes.
2 sprigs of fresh thyme.
Pumpkin seeds and ¼ cup vegan cream for serving.
Method
Heat the oil in a heavy bottom soup pan, add the onion, garlic. leaks, and cook till translucent. about 10 minutes.
Then add the apple, pumpkin or butternut squash, sweet potatoes cook off the vegetables for about 2 minutes, add the thyme, and the vegetable stock, and all the herbs, seasoning and spices, bring the soup to the boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.
take the soup off the heat, blend it with a stick blender, it will be a little thick, so add the plant milk to the soup to a consistency, that you like.
To serve, put in bowls or cups, put a swirl of plant cream on the top, and pumpkin seeds to add texture, serve with crusty roll.
This soup freezes really well but if you are freezing don’t add the milk until you defrost and reheat.