Recipe Thursday - New Zealand style Pumpkin Soup

My Friend Amy is hosting her 2nd Annual Fall Recipe Exchange.  You are invited to visit Amy's blog and click away for a wonderful selection of fall recipes.  Hope that you enjoy the menu and try some of them yourself.

It's autumn and pumpkins are available.  Not those huge ones that you carve up for Jack o Lanterns, but those small, flavourful ones that are meant for pie.  Well, they are also perfect for soup.  As I have mentioned previously, my niece is visiting from New Zealand and pumpkin soup is as common there as chicken noodle soup is here.  In the middle of September her friend, also from New Zealand, came to visit with her for a week.  As a treat they made us traditional pumpkin soup.  I wasn't involved in the cooking, though I did help with the peeling of the pumpkin.  I will try and write a recipe,  but I'm told it's just one of those dishes that you know how to make, that no one uses and actual recipe.

New Zealand Style Pumpkin Soup

2 smallish pie pumpkins

4 medium potatos peeled and diced

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup oil

4 cups chicken broth

2 onions, diced

2 stalks celery (optional)

2 cloves garlic (optional)

1 1/2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

dash of nutmeg (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the pumpkins.  Wash to remove all traces of dirt.  Cut the pumpkin and half and scoop out the seeds and most of the stringy stuff.  It doesn't matter is you get all the strings, they add flavour.  Slice the halfs into 3/4 inch strips.  Very carefully use a sharp knife to cut the peel off the pumpkin.  You will need about 1 1/2 pumpkins depending on the size of your soup pot.  The extra  slices of unpeeled pumpkin we put in a pan with oil, salt, pepper, curry powder and cumin and roasted in the oven at 425 F till soft, stirring them occasionally. 

Back to the soup.  Once the pumpkin is peeled, dice it into 3/4 inch pieces.  Place in a large soup pot.  Add the diced onion, diced potatos, butter and oil.  Add the celery and garlic if using.  Turn the heat to medium and stir frequently till the pumpkin is cooked and soft.  This will take a half hour or longer.  The pumpkin will release a fair amount of liquid while cooking.  You might have to add more oil if the pumpkin sticks.

Add the spices, chicken stock and additional water.  You can adjust the amount after you have pureed the vegetables.  Turn up the heat and bring to a boil.  Now it is time to puree.  You can use a blender, though we used an immersion blender.  Those are awesome.  Once it is blended you can add water to thin if needed.   It is quite a thick soup.  We served the soup with a dollop of sour cream.  you could also sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese, fresh bacon bits.  It's a very flavourful soup. 

The girls did such a wonderful job on the soup that I wanted to treat them to something uniquely Canadian.  I made them a pan of Nanaimo Bars.  They were a hit.  For those who haven't tried these delectable bars, they are a three layer confection.  The bottom layer is chocolate, graham wafer, coconut and walnuts.  The middle is a custard and the topping is more chocolate.  You can find the recipe for Nanaimo Bars at the Kraft website.  Be sure to prepare your pan properly with either foil or layers of saran wrap or you will have difficulty getting the bars out.

The history of the Nanaimo Bar is discussed in a Wikipedia article.

On Saturday you can join with Candace at Beth Fish Reads for "Weekend Cooking".  Add a link to your food related post, whether it be a recipe, restaurant review, or other food related post.