PUMPKIN THICK SOUP

My mother in law bought a pumpkin (actually two but now left one) for quite a while. She loves pumpkin, but the rest of us are not so keen. She reminisced the thick, creamy pumpkin she had when she visited Vietnam many years ago, and asked if I could make it. That's was a challenge because I had never tasted thick pumpkin soup before. So I looked up the internet for some ideas, and came up with a I-think-may-turn-out-alright version. To my surprise, the soup was well received by family and a neighbour.

PUMPKIN THICK SOUP

Ingredients

1 tsp cumin (aniseed)

2 tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced

2 potatoes, cubed

1 whole pumpkin, cubed

3 cups of water

1 can button mushroom, quartered

1/3 cube Knorr chicken essence

salt and pepper to taste

Garnish

Whipping cream or milk or plain yogurt

Black pepper

took me quite a while to finish cutting up this much pumpkin! phew!

1. When preparing potatoes, soak cubes in water for a while and drain.

2. In a small pot, using very low heat, fry cumin till fragrant. It takes about a minute. Then grind finely and set aside.

3. In a medium sized pot, with low-medium heat, melt butter and saute diced onion till translucent. (Cover the pot and let simmer for a while to quicken the pace)

4. Add in ground cumin and fry for a minute more.

5. Add in diced potatoes. Continue stirring and increase heat to medium. Keep stirring for about 8 minutes.

6. Add in cubed pumpkin. Stir fry for about 10 minutes.

7. Add water and allow to boil, occasionally stirring the pot.

8. Add in mushrooms and continue to boil lightly until the pumpkin and potatoes are soft.

pumpkin and potatoes are now soft!

9. Add in chicken cube, salt and pepper to taste.

10. Blend the soup till smooth.

I used a hand held blender, but a normal blender can be used too

11. Serve warm with whipping cream and a dash of black pepper.

VERDICT

You may opt out the potatoes if you do not like the soup too thick, or you may add only one potato. 

My husband and I liked the cumin which really enhanced the flavour, while I sensed my mother in law wished it was not added in.