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Here in Aotearoa/New Zealand we’re in the middle of Matariki, which also coincides with winter-solstice.  It’s the ‘dead of winter’.  It’s the time to nestle inside with the heat pumping and a good bowl of hearty soup to warm your insides and nourish your soul!  Here’s an organic soup I enjoyed creating today.  It’s full of healthy ingredients.  My two year old son adored it.  You don’t have to use organic ingredients; I just know where to buy affordable ones here in Golden Bay.  Just make the soup and enjoy the finished product – preferably with loved ones, though I’m sure it would freeze well too if you’re cooking solo    

1 medium to large size Crown Pumpkin

5 large potatoes

5 – 10 cloves of garlic

2 – 3 onions

1 apple

1 green capsicum (if you can source it this time of the year, we’re still producing them locally here in Golden Bay)

1 large handful of coriander finely chopped

Dash of oil

Salt

Pepper

1 vegetable bouillon cube

Dash of tamari

2 litres of water – enough to get the consistency of soup that you’re after – I like mine quite thick.

Slow bake the pumpkin in the oven at around 100 degrees Celsius for an hour or so – until it’s cooked through. 

Slow fry the onions and garlic in the oil.  Add the chopped potatoes, fry them too.  Then peel the skin off the pumpkin and put all the flesh in the pot with the onions, garlic and potatoes.  Leave out the inside of the pumpkin, including the seeds. Add a good litre or so of water – enough to easily cover the ingredients by two inches.  Add in the finely chopped apple (for sweetness), the finely chopped capsicum, the coriander and the dash of tamari.  When the soup is nearly boiling, turn it down to low and simmer it for at least an hour. 

Then, after the soups had an hour to two hours to simmer, add the salt and pepper.  Boil a quarter of a cup of water and melt the bouillon cube in it.  Add it to the soup.  Make sure there’s enough water in the pot of soup (at least an inch above the ingredients) that you can safely leave the soup simmering for as long as you like.  For those who enjoy fresher, live foods.  Stop cooking there, you could even add more greens (such as finely chopped spinach and parsley) and leave them to lightly cook in the natural heat.  Or, simmer a little longer if you like (I added to mine all day long, it was nice and filled the house with a delicious smell). 

Finally, either mash the soup up for an old fashioned, thick, lumpy consistency, or use the fantastic stick blender for a flasher, smoother, creamier soup.

Serves four to six people easily.  As I said, I love mine with ground parmesan on top and toasted garlic pita bread with olive oil drizzled inside.

Yum!

Ps I patched this recipe together in an hour, so I may have missed important details depending on your skill base as a cook.  if you have any questions, just email me [email protected]

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and  grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Tags: Food, good news