I had a darling little pumpkin in my veg box that I had been meaning to use for a while, so I decided to make it into a soup version of Meera Sodha’s delicious pumpkin curry I love so much. It turned out really well. Here is what I did.

I warmed some oil in a pot and added 1 tsp of mustard seeds, crushed cardamom from 3 or 4 pods, and sautéed for a minute. Then I added some chopped onion and let that cook down for at least 10 mins, until soft and golden. When that was done, I added 3 cloves of garlic and a thumb of ginger that I pulsed in my mini food processor, 1/4 tsp of turmeric, 1 tbsp of curry powder, and about 4 tbsps of tomato paste and let that cook out for another 7 mins or so, adding a bit of water if it looked too dry or burning. Once that was done I added my chopped pumpkin and some chopped potatoes, and some water to cover the veg and brought it all to a boil, then let it simmer until the root veg were soft. Once the veg were soft, I used my hand blender to purée some of the soup (I wanted to have some chunks of veg) and then added a can of coconut cream (not milk, but you can use milk, just be careful with how much water you are using at the start) and half a can to a can of beans. I would have liked to add spinach or steamed kale at this point, but I didn’t have any. Let this all simmer warmly for a bit and then garnish with fresh coriander. Done and done.