Guest Mary Curry with Pumpkin Soup!

Missy, here. Before I share Mary's guest post, I want to tell you about an exciting event to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Several authors are donating a 50-page critique, and the highest bidder will win--with proceeds going directly to Samaritan's Purse. I'm one of the authors participating, so I hope you'll bid on me! :) Here's a link to my blog (click here) and to our Facebook event page (click here.)

Now, on to fabulous Mary Curry!

Pumpkin Soup

by Mary Curry 

Last week, I commented on a soup that I made and Missy asked if I would share the recipe.

Sure. I love to share recipes here. The only problem? Well, there wasn’t really a recipe. I kind of made it up as I went along based on flavors that I felt belonged together. I guess that’s sort of the pantser way of cooking. But it’s all good in the end.

I promised I’d try to recreate the soup because it was really delicious and so healthy.

These are the ingredients I started with:

Chicken (or vegetable) broth, canned pumpkin (I used the large can because that’s what I had.), spices (I used Garam Masala, Nutmeg and cinnamon. The Garam Masala has cinnamon but I wanted more!), apples and lentils. 

 Assembling the ingredients and chopping up the apples is really the hardest part! After that it’s just a matter of mixing it all together and letting it simmer.

First I added the broth to my Dutch Oven. I used two of these containers of broth because I wanted enough soup to have lunch all week. Feel free to adjust or use a combo of broth and water. I used chicken broth this time because it’s what I had on hand, but last time I used vegetable broth. Either works fine.

I dumped in a whole bunch of the spices after that. Sorry I can’t give measurements, I just shook – a lot. Less on the nutmeg because it has a stronger flavor. You can adjust the spices when it gets to the tasting stage so for now, go with less if you don’t like spicy.

Next comes the pumpkin.

 Share some with the cute dog if he’s hanging out at your feet.

Note – if the cat thinks the dog is getting treats, he’ll show up too. But he doesn’t want pumpkin.

Good thing I’m cooking for myself. The Board of Health wouldn’t be liking these animals in the kitchen.

Next I peeled and cut up apples. You probably could do it without peeling, but I peeled.

I had a bunch of apples that were starting to go soft so I used about six, but it doesn’t have to be that many. I think I only used three last time. Go with your feelings about apples. For me, you can’t go wrong with lots of apples.

Simmer awhile.

See how specific this is? It really depends on how close you are to wanting to eat. The longer you simmer, the thicker and richer it gets. When you’re about half an hour or so away from wanting to eat. add the rinsed lentils. They absorb a lot of the liquid so this is where you want to check to make sure you don’t have pumpkin apple stew. Add liquid as needed or leave it alone if you like the idea of stew.

I had some pumpkin seeds in the cupboard so I toasted them to sprinkle on top. They added a nice crunch when I was eating.

Enjoy!

The first time I made this I added apple cider for flavor. I left that out this time since I had so many apples.

Hint – the soup tastes really good with the oatmeal cranberry walnut scone I picked up at the farmer’s market.

Warning: Did you know that pumpkin seeds have a certain effect on you? I didn’t and I wondered why … (how do we say this delicately?) Ah, they give you an overactive bladder.

But they’re good for you and they taste good!