There's nothing that can beat an old fashioned pumpkin soup, except maybe this very special recipe by Kane Pollard.

Recipe Kane Pollard | Styling Natalie Homan | Photography Brendan Homan

Roasting tray pumpkin soup with pumpkin leaf salsa verde and pumpkin seed dukkah
serves 8 (2 litres)

for soup
2 pumpkins, skin on, roughly chopped with seeds set aside
2 onions, peeled, roughly chopped
200ml olive oil
2 tbsp flake salt
1 tbsp fennel seeds
2 bulbs garlic, peeled and left in whole cloves
cracked pepper
1 litre cream or milk of choice

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Place all ingredients into a heavy-based roasting tray and toss together to make sure olive oil, salt, pepper and fennel seeds are evenly distributed. Roast in oven for 1 hour, until the pumpkin is caramelised and the garlic is tender. Add your cream or milk of choice to tray, stir and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Place all ingredients into food processor and blitz until smooth. Pass through a sieve if you would like it even more velvety. Add more milk or cream if required and season to taste.

for salsa verde
250g green leaves (pumpkin, spinach, rocket, soft herbs, any will work)
1 clove of raw garlic
40g capers
2 de-seeded, long green chillies
25g cider vinegar
25g white vinegar
125g canola or grapeseed oil
125g olive oil
salt and pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blitz into a chunky puree. Season as required.

for dukkah
50g sesame seeds
15g coriander seeds, partially ground
10g cumin, ground
20g almonds, ground
20g hemp seeds
10g smoked paprika
salt and pepper

Place pumpkin seeds and nuts on a lined baking tray and roast at 160 degrees for 1 hour until dried out and toasted. Using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind down dried seeds and set aside in a bowl. Place the rest of the ingredients in a pan on low heat, toasting the spices and nuts until fragrant. Add to the bowl of ground pumpkin seeds. Season to taste.

To serve, pour soup into a bowl and dollop on the salsa verde and dukkah.

 

This article first appeared in the May 2023 issue of SALIFE magazine.