This is a soup I made in huge quantities for my recent Paddock Picnic in July 2019. I made 36litres of the stuff in my regular kitchen up at the house and then had to transport it in two massive cooking pots, without lids, in the back of the Hilux ute down to the picnic paddock. It was a flawed plan from the start because despite driving like a grandma down our driveway hills, I still managed to slop hot pumpkin soup all over the ute tray! Now it’s stuck like enamel paint to the metal, forever a reminder of my soup-carrying journey.
Ingredients
Soup (feeds about 4 people)
- 1kg Kent Pumpkin or similar
- 4 heaped tablespoons white miso paste. Approx.
- Water
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Crumb (Save the leftovers to sprinkle over a salad)
- 2 cups of stale bread torn into small pieces
- 3 tablespoons of chopped Italian parsley or any green herb of choice
- 2-3 tablespoons of dry toasted pepita seeds (toast in a dry non-stick frypan for a few mins without oil)
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- Optional Nutritional Yeast Flakes
How to make it
Preheat a fan forced oven to 200deg.
Remove skin and seeds from the pumpkin and cut into 4cm-ish chunks. Arrange in a single layer on a paper-lined baking tray. Slash some olive oil over the pumpkin pieces and season with plenty of salt and pepper.
Tear up by hand the stale bread into rough thumb size pieces and spread on another paper lined baking tray. Sprinkle evenly with toasted pepita seeds, chopped parsley, plenty of salt and pepper, a good drizzle of olive oil and dried yeast flakes if using.
Roast the pumpkin in the hottest part of the oven for 30min or until lightly browned on the tips and thoroughly soft (mashable with a fork).
Roast the crumb in the coolest part of the oven for approx. 15mins or until toasty brown all over. Beware it will easily burn. Remove and set the tray of crumb aside to cool while the pumpkin continues to cook. When cooled, the batch of crumb might need some extra hand-crushing for a less chunky result.
Tip all the roasted pumpkin into a measuring jug to determine how much you have and then transfer into a large saucepan. Add as much plain water as there is volume of cooked pumpkin (maybe a bit less).
Spoon in a heaped tablespoon of white miso paste for every 400ml of water/pumpkin combo you have in the pan.
Blitz until fully blended and smooth with a stick blender, or whiz in a food processor if that’s easier.
Heat the soup on the cooktop, check the taste and seasoning. Add more miso for greater umami and saltiness and lots of ground black pepper. Add a squeeze of lemon for an extra bit of lift if you want.
Serve in mugs or bowls with a generous amount of the pepita crumb sprinkled over the top. Eat with lots of hot buttered toast around the campfire. Enjoy!
