Simple Red Lentil And Pumpkin Soup
Turn Your Halloween Pumpkin Into This Gorgeous Red Lentil And Pumpkin Soup
Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup is the perfect Autumn soup recipe as the pumpkin is buttery and perfectly roasted and the lentils are full of nutrients.
Although I’m biased it’s one of the best pumpkin soup recipes that I’ve ever tried before.
Red Lentil And Pumpkin Soup Made With Your Halloween Pumpkin
You carve your pumpkin for Halloween or have a few sitting on your front porch for decoration and then what do you do with it?
Most people throw their pumpkin away the day after Halloween and waste all the beautiful nutritious flesh inside.
You can easily turn it into some amazing pumpkin recipes and it keeps your pumpkin in the kitchen and out of the compost heap.
Making Homemade Soup
I know many people that buy soup in a can or a box but nothing compares to homemade soups.
Making soup is a fairly painless process especially a fresh pumpkin soup that will be bursting with flavour such as this recipe.
Once you’re used to making soup you’ll start to experiment more with spices and using different vegetables and proteins in your soup creations.
If you remember last Sunday I shared my carrot marmalade recipe and I was telling you all about my overflowing selection of fruits and vegetables in my kitchen.
Well just after my blog post my neighbour call’s me on the phone saying that she is on her way over to visit me with a surprise.
I love surprises.
Next thing I know she is opening the back of her van and there staring up at me is the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen in my life.
Pumpkin Carving
All of my friends and family including my neighbour know that I carve pumpkin sculptures for Halloween and I said I would do some “Minions” for her.
I had not expected her to rush out to find the biggest pumpkins she could but she did, and she got them free.
Free is a great word. We like that word around here.
My neighbour’s sister-in-law had grown far too many pumpkins which had taken over the garden so she was gifted free pumpkins which were perfect for the pumpkin carving project.
Unfortunately, the pumpkins she brought were a bit big for me to carve.
She told me that she would be back with a few that were reasonably smaller for me to get my creative juices flowing.
Pumpkin Recipes
In the meantime, I had to do something with my pumpkin so I sat down to come up with some ideas.
I was sure that I wanted to make a pumpkin soup recipe and then the idea for Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup popped into my head.
We love lentils in our house not only because they are nutritious but because they are a frugal staple in our pantry that goes a long way for many meals.
Lentils are a high-protein, high-fiber member of the legume family.
Like a mini version of a bean, lentils grow in pods and come in red, brown, black, and green varieties.- Medical News Today
I’ve also pureed the pumpkin and froze it for later use but I’ll be making pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice muffins for my family for Thanksgiving.
If you love pumpkin pie as much as we do you could also try Mr.CBB’s Pumpkin Spice Pound Cake with Brown Buttercream.
It tastes like a pumpkin pie without the crust which means you get a huge slice of heaven on a plate.
Interesting Pumpkin Fact
Did you know that in Scotland we carved turnips and not pumpkins?
I’d never seen a pumpkin as big as the one today until I moved to Canada.
I couldn’t believe the number of pumpkins available in Canada and how cheap they were to purchase them.
My dad would always carve a lantern out of a turnip so that we had something to go trick or treating with.
That is where my creativity and passion for carving pumpkins began.
I thought you might find that interesting.
How To Make Red Lentil And Pumpkin Soup
- 1 medium pumpkin
- (As mine was so big I only used the bit off the end)
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 4 medium carrots
- 1 cup of red lentils
- 1 Onion
- 2 sticks celery
- 2 pints of chicken stock
- 1/2 teaspoon Garam Masala
- Nob of butter
- Cut the pumpkin into small pieces and place on a tray that is covered with parchment paper. This will stop it from sticking to the tray.
- Drizzle over two tablespoons of oil and some salt and mix well on the tray coating all the pumpkin.
- Set your oven to 240c/464f
- Tip – when cutting up your pumpkin leave he skins on as they are easier to remove!
- Place in oven to roast for 40-45 mins until soft and golden brown.
- Tip – when cutting up your pumpkin or even for hollowing out for decoration use an ice-cream scoop it’s so much easier!
- Now whilst this is cooking chop up the rest of the vegetables and place in the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil and butter. Then add 1/2 teaspoon Garam Masala.
- Once they start to soften add your stock to the pan.
- When it has started to boil add your Lentils and Pumpkin.
- This should take no more than 10 mins for your lentils to cook.
- After all your ingredients are ready and cooked in the pan taste and add salt and pepper, puree and it’s done!
What can be simpler than a heart-warming bowl of red lentil and pumpkin soup?
I can assure you that will take any chill out of your bones on these cooler Autumn evenings, enjoy all!!
Discussion: What other savoury pumpkin soup recipes do you like? Leave me a comment below and I’ll be sure to respond.
