Pumpkin And Apple Soup – Shared Recipe
I love sharing recipes. There is so much knowledge and expertise in each of our homes that has arisen through experimentation, love of food and developed at the school of big mistakes and surprise successes!
So when someone shares their tried, tested and well loved recipe it is like a precious gift and is so much more than a few words on paper (or on email). It is the sharing of all the experience that came before it and the gift of what otherwise might be a well-kept secret, known only to the household from whence it came!
At Penny’s Recipes, we love to share. I am always grateful for new ideas based on easy, seasonal and low cost recipes. So when Elisabeth said she was looking forward to my pumpkin soup recipes, may be as a change from hers, I was intrigued.
Delightfully she agreed to share so you too can try ‘A Heartbreaking Soup of Staggering Loveliness‘
A recipe shared is a heartwarming gift especially when it so apt for the season as this wonderful autumnal pumpkin and apple soup
A Heartbreaking Soup of Staggering Loveliness
by Elisabeth Mahoney – Radio critic for The Guardian
Like almost all the soups I make, this one came about because of the autumn weather (suddenly chilly, windy, and wet) and what I had in the pantry. Specifically, I had a pumpkin – cheerfully, vividly bright orange on a dreich day, from the allotment – and a bottle of superb bone-dry Blaengawney Heartbreaker cider. I also had a few apples left over from jam making, and some chicken stock after a roast.
Soups are a quintessential part of autumn. In that odd burst of late hot weather we had, it was all gazpacho and chilled soups – a luxurious treat because it was so unexpected. But part of the charm of autumn is making soups like this: comforting, rich, warming, nourishing and easy-peasy. They fill the kitchen and home with gorgeous aromas and are gloriously no-fuss, affordable cooking. Everything is approximate and relaxed in this recipe – get the basics right and the details really don’t matter. You’ll end up with gorgeous soup that freezes brilliantly.
Pumpkin And Apple Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Small knob butter
- 1 medium onion, roughly chopped (this all gets blended so doesn’t need neat slicing)
- 2 cloves garlic chopped or crushed
- 1 medium pumpkin (or squash) – about 800g when peeled, cored and deseeded
- 3 apples – I used 2 cookers (e.g. Bramley) and 1 eater (Cox) but any mix is fine – peeled, cored, chopped.
- piece fresh ginger, grated
- 500ml good, dry cider. You need the dryness to undercut the rich, sweet, glossy, unctuous pumpkin.
- 750ml stock: I used chicken, but vegetable stock is fine too; fresh or cubed.
- 3/4 teaspoon allspice
Cooking Directions
- Melt oil and butter in a large pan
- Cook onion, gently, for 10 mins
- Add garlic and cook for further 2 mins
- Add pumpkin, ginger, spice, apples
- Give it a good stir and season; cook for 5 mins
- Add cider and stock. Bring to boil then simmer for 25 mins
- Cool, then blend
- Check seasoning
- Serve with a swirl of double cream if you have one to hand, and some good bread
recipe sounds lovely and I can wait to try it, but just one query do I still use cider if I use butternut squash instead of the pumpkin.
Many thanks
Kind regards
Heather
Yes – it should still be fine to use the cider. I hope you enjoy it!