With Winter approaching in the southern hemisphere, simple soup recipes are a must.

Ingredients

• ½ tablespoon olive oil
• 15g butter
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• About 1-1¼ kg pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
• 1 litre (4 cups) stock (chicken or vegetable)

Method

1. Heat oil and butter in saucepan then cook onions for about 5 minutes, or until golden. (I like to make soups in my Dutch Oven, but any heavy saucepan will do.)
2. Add cumin and cook for 1 minute or until aromatic.
3. Add pumpkin pieces and stir to coat.
4. Add stock and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until pumpkin is cooked and soft.
5. Purée everything. (I use a stick blender for this, and have less dishes to clean up.)

Add a dollop of cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, and serve with your favourite warmed bread.

Serves many people

Ingredients

• 2 brown onions, diced
• 1 large red capsicum, diced
• ½t chopped red chilli
• ½ bunch fresh coriander, chopped
• 3t chopped garlic
• 50g ginger, chopped
• 2T vegetable oil
• 4kg peeled and chopped kumara
• 2-4l water (I used 2 litres in the cooking, and an additional half litre to help blend the soup.)
• 2T salt
• 1T ground white pepper
• 4T sugar
• 500ml coconut cream

Method

1. Sauté the onions, capsicum, chilli, coriander, garlic and ginger in oil.
2. Add kumara and cover with water (approx 2-4 litres), add salt, pepper and sugar.
3. Boil for one hour.
4. Blend and strain.
5. Reheat with coconut cream, check seasoning.

I used orange kumara, making the soup look like pumpkin.