12.8 million pumpkins are due to be left uneaten this Halloween. This is a fraction of the 6.6 million tonnes wasted by households each year. We want our residents to make the most of the humble pumpkin and start to fight food waste year-round.
Not so scary Pumpkin soup
INGREDIENTS (Serves 4)
SOUP: About 1kg pumpkin or squash / 5-6 cloves garlic, unpeeled, bashed / 8-12 fresh sage leaves (optional) / 3 tablespoons rapeseed or olive oil / about 500g sharp dessert apples, such as Cox or Ashmead’s Kernel / up to 700ml chicken or vegetable stock.
CHILLI OIL: 6 tablespoons olive oil / ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes / a good pinch of sweet paprika (smoked paprika if you like) / ½ clove garlic, slivered
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 190oC/gas mark 5.
- Cut the pumpkin or squash into slim wedges (scoop out any seeds to roast if you haven’t already done so). Put the squash in a roasting dish, skin side down. Scatter the bashed garlic cloves loosely over the pan. Crush the sage leaves (if using) roughly in your hands and strew these over too. Trickle the oil all over everything and season well with salt and pepper.
- Roast for 40 minutes. Check after 25 minutes, and if the sage leaves are starting to look burnt, remove them, but retain.
- Meanwhile, to make the chilli oil, just heat the oil, chilli, paprika and garlic gently together in a small pan over a low heat for 3-4 minutes. You want the oil just barely fizzing: just enough to infuse the chilli. Set aside until needed.
- Shortly before the roasting time is up, peel, quarter and core the apples. Cut each quarter in half. When the squash has had 40 minutes, remove the sage if you haven’t already and add the apples to the roasting tray. Mix everything around a bit and return to the oven for another 20 minutes, by which time the squash should be tender and caramelised and the apples collapsing.
- Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins into a liquidiser (omit any that are a bit burnt). Add the apples. Scrape the pumpkin or squash flesh away from the skin and add this too. Add any oily juices left in the pan and a few of the sage leaves too. Add about 400ml stock to the liquidiser and process to a thick, creamy puree. Add more stock as you like, to achieve a consistency you are happy with. The amount you need will vary quite a lot depending on the sort of pumpkin or squash you choose. Transfer to a saucepan and reheat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve in warmed bowls, topped with a generous trickle of the chilli oil. You can include a few fragments of chilli and garlic with the oil if you like, or not, it’s up to you.
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