Everyday cooking
Pumpkin soup with sour cream and seed oil
Tender Hokkaido pumpkin is blended smooth and finished with sour cream and pumpkin seed oil.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Servings / pieces
- 4
- Topic
- Everyday cooking
Hokkaido pumpkin is convenient for soup because its edible skin softens enough to blend with the flesh. Remove the seeds and soft internal fibres thoroughly nonetheless. A small potato adds body without flour. Add sour cream and pumpkin seed oil at serving time so their pale and dark trails remain visible. These toppings have enough character that the soup itself needs only gentle seasoning. Start with a restrained quantity of stock and adjust after blending, rather than spending extra time reducing a watery soup. The final texture should be creamy but still easy to ladle.
Method
Step by step
- 01
Cut pumpkin
Wash the pumpkin, halve it and scoop out seeds and soft fibres. Cut the flesh, skin on, into roughly 2 cm cubes. Peel and dice the potato.
- 02
Soften vegetables
Chop onion and garlic. Warm the oil and soften the onion over medium heat for 4 minutes. Add garlic, pumpkin and potato and turn for 2 minutes.
- 03
Cook until tender
Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer over low to medium heat for 20–25 minutes. Pumpkin and potato should crush easily with a spoon.
- 04
Blend soup
Remove from the heat and blend completely smooth. If too thick, add hot water in small amounts. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- 05
Serve with seed oil
Warm the soup gently again and divide between four bowls. Stir the sour cream smooth and spoon onto each serving. Drizzle each with 1 tsp pumpkin seed oil without mixing the toppings completely through.
Times are a guide. Your hob, oven and ingredients affect the result; use the cooking cues as well as the clock.
Changing the pumpkin
Butternut squash also works, but peel it for this soup. Large cubes lengthen the cooking time. A dry variety may need extra stock, while a watery one needs less. The finished soup should flow creamily from the spoon and contain no firm skin fragments.
Use seed oil as a finish
Pumpkin seed oil has a pronounced nutty flavour. It seasons the finished soup here rather than being used for frying. Omit it if preferred and add toasted pumpkin seeds for texture. A little plain yoghurt can replace the sour cream at serving time.
Kitchen questions
One more question?
Must I peel Hokkaido pumpkin?
Not for this recipe if the skin is clean and undamaged. Remove hard damaged areas and cook the pieces until completely tender.
Can I omit the potato?
Yes. Start with slightly less stock and check the texture after blending. The potato mainly supplies extra body in this version.
