Pumpkin Soup

There is nothing like a warm bowl of pumpkin soup on a cold autumns evening. This is savoury and filling, and a perfect way to use up those many pumpkins my little garden grew!

serves 4

Ingredients

750g pumpkin
250g potato
2 onions chopped
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
1 litre water

Method

Saute onions, add in pumpkin and potato. Cover with stock and water, and boil until everything is soft.
Puree to soft consistency.
add in 1 tbs of cream and stir to combine.

Serve with crusty bread.

Spiced roast vegetables

I don't know where this dish originated, but we have been making it in our family for as long as I can remember. It is a mix of roast vegetables, smothered in olive oil and spices, and baked until soft. A perfect dish for autumn, especially if you have a bumper harvest of root vegetables and pumpkins waiting to be devoured.



This is a very easy dish to prepare, and one that is tasty enough on it's own as well as a great side dish for roasts.

Spiced roast vegetables

Ingredients
Desired amount of vegetables for roasting (we usually use a mix of any or all of the following: capsicum, pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, and jerusalem artichoke - though you are welcome to experiment with other veggies as well - onions and whole garlic cloves in their skin go very nicely)
olive oil - just enough to coat the veggies
pinch of salt
paprika
nutmeg

I usually use 1 generous tbs of sweet hungarian paprika with 1 tsp of nutmeg to about half a standard baking pan/roasting pan of veggies. You can add a little bit of heat with a little hot paprika, chillis, or cayenne pepper if you want it extra spicy. ;)

Method
Cut all veggies to around the same size and arrange in dish.
Sprinkle the salt and spices on top
Add a small amount of olive oil, and mix through the veggies until they are all lightly coated with oil

Place in a 190 oven and cook until veggies are tender - usually 40 minutes or so.
Serve!

Kluski

Pumpkin kluski with red cabbage

Kluski is a kind of generic name for dumplings or thick noodles in Polish. There are different types of kluski, but the ones my babcia and mum used to make most of the time were made of mashed potato and were oh-so-good.  Especially in soups, or just simply fried in a little butter the next day...

Babcia'sKluski
Peel 5 medium potatoes and cook in boiling salted water until tender. Mash them with a small amount of milk. While they are still warm mix in 1 egg, and enough flour from a cup of plain flour so that the dough comes together and is malleable and not sticky. The quantities of the flour will depend on how much moisture is in the potatoes, and even on the humidity of the room. Add it slowly until it comes together. Roll out thick snakes of the dough, cut pieces off, and shape them so they have a little indentation. Ok, I have to admit - I never shape them because I am lazy! But Babcias were always perfect and beautiful!

Cook in large pot of boiling salted water without crowding the kluski. As they float up to the surface remove with a slotted spoon. Serve them with soups, stews, fried with cabbage - or bacon, which was my mums favourite.!

My Pumpkin kluski
My version of kluski uses mashed pumpkin instead of potato - you need to add more flour, and usually another egg to get a good non-sticky dough. It is always softer and more sticky than the potato kluski. Instructions for making it are the same as for the potato. These are a little sweeter because of the pumpkin, and I find they go really well with red cabbage as a wonderful autum dish - the flavours work well, and the dish is just beautiful to look at!

Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

Moroccan spiced pumpkin soup, with beer bread

Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

This is a really yummy soup - light and spicy and filling. Mmmmm.... yummm .... perfect for a cool winter evening. Mine turned out much oranger than the pic on the Taste.com.au site, but I have to say the flavour delivered!!

Recipe taken from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9639/moroccan+pumpkin+soup#

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
• 1 leek, white part only, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red birdseye chilli, finely chopped
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3cm piece ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 carrots, peeled, coarsely chopped
• 1.5kg butternut or Queensland blue pumpkin, peeled, seeded (see note), cut into 3cm pieces
• 1/3 cup (70g) yellow split peas
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Coriander sprigs and soup sprinkles, to serve

Method

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over low-medium heat and cook leek, garlic and 2 tsp salt, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes or until soft. Add chilli, cinnamon, ginger and cumin and stir for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add carrots, pumpkin and split peas. Stir to coat in onion mixture.
2. Add 1.5 litres water to saucepan and bring to the boil, then simmer for 50 minutes or until split peas are soft.
3. Remove and discard cinnamon stick from soup. Add lemon juice then process or blend soup, in small batches, in a food processor or blender until smooth. Return soup to pan and reheat over medium heat. Serve topped with coriander sprigs and soup sprinkles.