Warming Pumpkin Soup with Pine Nuts and Halloumi

There’s already an autumn chill in the air so what better way to keep out the cold than a comforting bowl of warming pumpkin soup? During the winter months, I’ll often make batches of various soups as I find them the perfect quick lunch for me or tea-on-the-go in a flask for the kids. This recipe came about while needing to use up a glut of pumpkin (donated by a friend of my mum’s) that was clogging up my freezer. It’s a really cheap and easy recipe that will be perfect for Halloween, when we will have more pumpkin flesh than we know what to do with! The chilli flakes give the soup a gentle warmth rather than heat, that can easily be adjusted to taste and the pine nuts and halloumi are simply an alternative to croutons, adding a little crunch and extra dimension. Keep it vegetarian by using a vegetable stock rather than a meat based one.

This recipe easily serves a family of five with leftovers.

Ingredients:

1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
1 small pumpkin or squash, deseeded and roughly chopped (some varieties don’t even need peeling if the skin is thin!)
Splash cooking oil, I use rape seed
2 pints of hot stock, I use the liquor from boiling a ham before baking, but any fresh stock or cubes will work well too (Knorr are gluten free)
1 tsp dry chilli flakes (more if you like it hot!)
Salt and pepper

To Serve:

2 heaped tsp pine nuts per person
Approx 50g halloumi per person (I use a 225g pack for 5 of us), chopped into 1cm cubes

Method:

Chuck the onion, garlic, pepper, carrot and pumpkin into a roasting tray and drizzle with the oil
Roast in a preheated oven at 160C for around 50 minutes until soft and slightly browned in places (stir every 15-20 mins)

Bring the stock up to a simmer in a large saucepan and add the chilli flakes
Allow to simmer for 5 minutes before adding the roasted veg off the heat

Whizz the soup with a hand-held blender until smooth
If the soup seems a bit thick, add hot water until you reach the desired consistency

Season with salt and pepper to taste -I often find that it doesn’t need any salt if I use stock cubes and if you are topping with halloumi, that is salty too!
When you are ready to serve, heat a dry sauce pan to max
Add your pine nuts to the pan and keep gently shaking the pan to prevent them burning
DO NOT LEAVE THESE UNATTENDED!! As soon as they start to colour you are seconds away from burning!
On a high heat these should be toasted in a couple of minutes, remove from the pan

Keeping the high heat, add a little oil to the pan, allow to heat up
Add the halloumi cubes
These will colour instantly so keep moving them around until all sides are browned
Remove from the pan to prevent burning
Serve the soup with a topping of the halloumi and pine nuts