At the moment the weather in Perth is wishy-washy. It can’t decide what it is doing. This has been great for me. One night I am making a fresh summery meal and the next, when winter peaks through like today, a hearty wintery meal. The best of both worlds.

I haven’t liked soup for long – a few years at most. But when I fell, I fell hard. Now I look forward to winter food mainly because of soup. There is nothing better for me to leave for work with a container of soup from the night before. And this is my favourite soup. I adore pumpkin, its sweet flavour, texture and versatility. This recipe calls for imagination. Pumpkin is friend to so many flavours like ginger, tomato, orange, paprika, coriander, bacon….

I used to stay away from cooking pumpkin, even though I loved it, because I found it too hard to peel and cut. Then Em (who’s a hand therapist) told me to place the pumpkin on high in the microwave for five minutes. This softens it and makes it easy to cut the skin off with a knife and chop it into chunks.

Pumpkin & Bacon Soup

Ingredients

1 medium-sized butternut pumpkin

2 or 3 potatoes

1 brown onion

3 cloves garlic

5 rashers of bacon

1 teaspoon of all-spice

Coriander to garnish

Method

First, place the pumpkin in the microwave and cook on high for five minutes to soften. Cut the skin off and cut it into small chunks. Peel and cut the potatoes into small chunks also. Chop the onion, garlic finely. Brown the onions in a large saucepan with olive oil. Add the garlic. Chop the bacon into small pieces and add them to the mix stirring in the all-spice and adding a little pepper and salt. You can also add a bay leaf or two, if you like.

Add the water to the mix, then the potato and pumpkin chunks. Give it a little stir then place the lid on the pot and put it on medium heat to simmer for about 40 minutes or until the pumpkin and potatoes are really soft.

To serve the soup, place small amounts into the blender. Be very careful with hot soup. Place a tea towel over the blender jug, then the lid. This lets the steam escape little by little. Then pour the soup into bowls and place some fresh coriander on top as a garnish.

What will the weather be like tomorrow? And what will we cook? Those baby beetroot need to be cooked soon and we have a load of bok choy and choy sum. I find they only stay really fresh and gorgeous for a few days. There is a bag of carrots, tomatoes, baby spinach, fetta cheese and broccoli. So much choice. Thanks for the ideas and Kate, I will be trying yours very soon…

Mia

xoxo

PS Happy Easter Sunday – hope yours is filled with family and chocolate!

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