You Need
1 whole crown pumpkin
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 rashers bacon
400ml stock or broth (water also works if you have neither)
1-2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp natural sea salt
What to do
Wash any dirt off the pumpkin and put the entire pumpkin skin, stalk and all into either your slow cooker, pressure cooker or oven.
Slow cook: On high 4-6 hours, low 6-8 hours.
Pressure cooker: Add 1 cup water pressure cook 30 mins and leave to rest 30 mins.
Oven – 180 deg c for 2 hours
Once the pumpkin is cooked, leave to cool. Then peel the skin off – it should only take a minute to get all the skin off and should come away like paper. Pluck the stem out and then cut in half and scoop out the seeds and discard.
Add the flesh to a large stock pot along with the rest of the ingredients and cook until bacon is heated and liquid is simmering. (Usually I pop the lid on and leave to simmer 10 mins).
Blend everything until smooth, I use my vitamix and blend in batches.
Serve with more salt, cracked black pepper and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if you can have it. Fresh herbs that lend well are parsley, chives & coriander.
Notes:
If it seems bland or unbalanced it usually means it needs more salt.
Sometimes I cook the pumpkin then store the cooked flesh in the fridge to make soup later in the week. Sometimes I save some flesh to put in baking (like these muffins or waffles) or to hide in other dishes like mince (my kids don’t like plain pumpkin).
