With Halloween being around the corner, we’ve got loads of pumpkin and cauliflower at the farmer’s market and supermarkets, at quite low prices.  Fresh pumpkin and cauliflower being in season again (yay!  also 1€ per kg of pumpkin? yummy and a steal!) I thought of combining some of my favourite veggies in a nice, warming soup.  And enter… this cauliflower and pumpkin soup!  Both vegetables work well in soups or as roasted veg, and combine great with thyme, turmeric, rosemary, cumin or curry, most of them warming herbs.  Also a great way of getting lots of healthy vitamins in!

Today’s soup is based on cauliflower and pumpkin (obviously…) but also has some ginger, garlic, turmeric, carrot and some onion goodness in there, sprinkled with some thyme.  Most of your time will rather be in the prep of your veggies than in the making, and you may want to grab your stick blender too, to blend this all together.

Ingredients:

• 350gr of fresh cauliflower
• 350gr of fresh pumpkin
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cloves of garlic (or just the 1 if you’re not that much of a fan)
• 2cm fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1.5L of vegetable stock
• thyme, pepper, salt – as preferred
• some butter for frying our veggies first

Method:

First we need to wash, peel, cut, clean and dice or slice all our veggies. (I am a slow cutter so I usually spend most of my time on food prep, first to get a good sized chunks and secondly, to get really clean veggies, especially if they’re fresh off the field.  If it’s been raining, our farmer at the farmer’s market doesn’t always rinse the veggies as much as we would like. Boo…)

Once all veggies are ready to go, you can grab a large soup pot, and put this on a medium to high heat.  Add butter, and once the butter is melted, add on the onion and garlic.  Let these sweat for a bit but keep stirring so they don’t colour too much.  Next you add on the ginger and carrot, and also pumpkin and cauliflower.

Leave on a medium heat with a lid on for a good 10 min, stirring occasionally, this will get your veggies sweating and ensures they release their aroma. Also add on the thyme and turmeric plus your stock (or stock cubes/ Knorr stock pots and boiling water) and bring to the boil, stirring regularly for about 20 to 30 minutes or until all veggies are soft.

Puree the soup with your stick blender, but if you find your soup a little thick, then add some extra hot water in.  Season with pepper and salt to your liking and if you want, you can serve this hot with a drop of coconut milk.  Enjoy!