Halloween is fast approaching and everyone is getting spooky. Many of you, especially those with children will be getting ready, preparing costumes and making jack o’lanterns. You will be scooping out pumpkin guts straight into the bin, with the melted wax covered carcass following suit on November 1st.
Well, I am here to put a stop to that! Pumpkins are delicious and don’t deserve to be treated in such a manner! If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen some of the things I have made over the course of October, including stews, cookies, face scrubs and soup.
I see people’s eyes glaze over wondering why I am harping on about something as mundane as a pumpkin. But I’m not just your basic bitch with a venti PSL obsession when one large pumpkin costs between £1-3 and you can feed yourself on it for well over two weeks – it just makes sense to let the world know.
I first starting cooking with pumpkin when I was in a financially tight spot in between graduating and finding my first proper post-university job. I have found food education, especially in the U.K., is really lacking. I have really had to research how to make sure I was eating well but also making my money stretch.
Not only is pumpkin good for your purse strings but it is incredibly nutritious – high in vitamins, fruit enzymes, antioxidants, minerals and beta-carotene. All of which are excellent for your overall health and skin.
One of my favourite things to make is a delicious and seasonal Roasted Red Pepper and Pumpkin soup. A fairly simple recipe to warm you on a crisp and cold day.
If this sounds like something up your street the read on for the recipe.
Ingredients
- Half a medium sized pumpkin
- 1 diced onion
- 1 chilli
- 2 – 4 red peppers (Any variety is fine)
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1.5L stock (2 parts veg, 1part chicken)
- Oil and knob of butter
Method
- Preheat oven to 200C, slice your peppers in half lengthwise and deseed. Place on tray -skin side up- and place in oven for 20-25 minutes.
- Melt butter and oil and add onion, pumpkin and chilli. Season with salt and pepper then sweat for 10 minutes. Make sure not to brown the veg.
- Add garlic and then stock. Gently simmer for 15 minutes.
- De-skin your peppers, add to pot and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
- Take off the heat and blend with a hand blender.
As a lover of spicy foods, I have included chillis in my recipe to give the soup a nice bit of heat. But if you are a fan of things a little milder, you can give these a miss and still be left with a delicious end product.
Hopefully, I will manage to convince at least a few people to give pumpkin a try this Halloween. If that’s the case then my work will be done!
I hope those that give it a try enjoy and please leave me a comment to let me know how it goes!
Have a Happy Halloween!
Until next time.
Ashleigh.
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