Roasted Pumpkin Soup| chaserivers

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

w/ Lemon Parsley Couscous

"Vegetable soup with sautéed onion, parsnips & celery, red potatoes, with ginger, turmeric, paprika, Kashmiri chili & Tejpata leaf, finished with kale, roasted pumpkin & a hint of nutmeg, served with a lemon-parsley couscous."

Ingredients

1 sugar pumpkin, about 3 pounds

Olive oil

1 large white onion, large dice

Sea salt, finely ground

3 parsnips, peeled, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)

3 peeled celery ribs, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/4 cup tomato paste, double concentrate (Cento)

2 1/2 teaspoons finely grated, ginger root

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground/dried turmeric

1/2 cup crushed tomatoes, canned (Cento)

2 quarts vegetable broth

1 Tejpata leaf

2 to 2 1/2 cups red potatoes, cut into 1 1/2 pieces

Kashmiri chili powder

1 1/2 cups chickpeas/Garbanzo beans, prepared/cooked

3 cups of Kale, medium-sized pieces, ribs removed, rinsed, dried off.

Nutmeg

Lemon wedges

Lemon-Parsley Couscous

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups pearl couscous

2 ½ cups water

½ teaspoon salt

1 lemon

Fresh Italian/flat leaf parsley or cilantro

Directions

Pumpkin Preparation: Cut the top and bottom off of pumpkin, slice pumpkin in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Cut the pumpkin lengthwise into around 1 1/2 inch wide pieces. Remove the skins with a vegetable peeler, then peel out any remaining fibrous area on the opposite side.

Add to a large bowl, drizzle with olive oil, toss, season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and toss again. Arrange onto a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Add 3 tablespoons olive oil to a 4 quart Dutch oven or soup pot and heat over medium temperature. Add the diced onion, parsnips and a few pinches of salt and cook, stirring often until onions become translucent. Once onions are translucent and softened, spoon them out onto a plate, reduce heat to med-low, add the celery to the pot and continue cooking until vegetables start to take on some color and soften some. Add the onions back along with the tomato paste and cook 2-3 minutes until the tomato paste starts to darken some. Add the ginger, paprika, turmeric and cook 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes, vegetable broth and stir well. Add the Tejpata leaf and potatoes and bring to a soft boil. Lightly season with some salt and then add some of the Kashmiri chili powder, starting with 1/2 teaspoon and adding more to-taste/heat level. Kashmiri can be adjusted at the end of cooking too. Cover and cook until vegetables are tender, 30-35 minutes.

While soup is cooking roast the pumpkin. Move the oven rack to lower-center position and preheat oven to 450F. Roast the pumpkin for 20 minutes, remove from oven, turn over slices and roast 5 more minutes or until fork tender. Remove from oven and slide off of the hot baking sheet to cool.

After the parsnips, celery, etc have softened, add the chickpeas and cook for about 5 minutes. Turn heat to low, add the kale and let wilt. Add a small pinch of nutmeg, stir and taste. Add more nutmeg if needed but use sparingly. Salt to taste, then add more grated ginger and/or turmeric a pinch at a time if needed, and stir. Add the roasted pumpkin to the top of soup and serve with couscous.

Lemon-Parsley Couscous

Note: If using cilantro you may want to use lime instead of lemon.

Add the olive oil to a sauce pan and heat over medium temperature. Add the couscous and stir until about half of the couscous is toasted. Add the water and salt and whisk to break up any clumps. Reduce heat to med-low, cover and simmer until water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit 2-3 minutes. Uncover, fluff with a fork and let cool. Once cooled, squeeze 1/2 of a lemon over the top and fluff again. Add desired amount of chopped parsley and mix well. Serve couscous and lemon wedges with the soup. Lemon can be squeezed over the top of pot of soup if preferred. Serves 6-8.