Curried Crouton Chickpea Pumpkin Soup

From when I started dating Michael he was never a big fan of soup, especially pumpkin soup. I grew up on soups. Everything from a hearty, creamy soup, to a more bland one to soothe the tummy. One thing that happened when we moved out together was that I wasn’t as good at making the soups I loved so much as my family was.

I always tried to make it more interesting, and get Michael just a little bit more excited about it, but he always commented saying that “it’s not bad” but still felt like he was getting full from just water.

So I made soups very rarely or only for myself as I knew he wasn’t a fan. But I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to create soups that he actually looked forward to. So a lot of trial and error—more failures then successes but this one is a winner. He gets excited when I make it. The first time he had it, he couldn’t get enough! I was so happy. Now we can both enjoy soup together.

You don’t realise that sharing food together with people that you love can be so powerful. Coming from a European background, I guess deep down inside this was important to me. I wanted my husband to enjoy and get excited about my cooking. Well, I guess I’ve done it, he even loves pumpkin soup now haha.

I hope that this resonates with some of you out there that may go through the same thing. I’ve noticed that many males aren’t the biggest fans of soup. I hope this one wins them over.

I believe it’s the combination of ingredients for the soup, the fact that the pumpkin and capsicum are roasted and of course, the topping! The topping is the critical component to this. Please don’t skip it.

One thing that you can add in the soup when it’s boiling for the first time is some leftover cauliflower leaves and broccoli stalks. I throw in a few of them as well if I have them in the fridge, it doesn’t change the flavour at all.

If you try this recipe, let me know! Would love for you to leave a comment and rating below. If you want to go that extra mile, tag us on Instagram or share your photo of the recipe on Pinterest. 

Yield: serves 5-6

Curried Crouton Chickpea Pumpkin Soup

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 kilo butternut pumpkin, chopped into cubes
• 1 red bell pepper (capsicum), chopped roughly
• ¼ cup oil*
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2 inch piece of ginger, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped in half
• Half a red chilli, deseeded if too hot for you (I deseed), chopped roughly
• 2L water, boiled

Topping

• ¼ cup oil*
• 400gr can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 slices of bread, chopped into cubes - we use sliced sourdough
• 1 tbs curry powder
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 tbs mustard seeds
• Salt
• Handful of chopped coriander

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200C (392F).
2. Place pumpkin, oil and 1 tsp salt in baking tray and mix well so that oil and salt is covering the pumpkin and place in oven.
3. Bake for 15 minutes then add in the bell pepper and toss well before putting back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.
4. While that is baking, in a large saucepan add in the onion, ginger, garlic, chilli and boiled water. Cook on medium heat boiling for around 20 minutes.
5. Once the vegetables have finished roasting, add to the pot and boil it altogether for a further 10-15 minutes to infuse all the flavours together and everything becomes nice and soft.
6. While you let the soup cool, add the oil, chickpeas, bread, curry and garlic powder and mustard seeds to a frying pan and fry until the bread starts to crisp, make sure you toss it to even out the frying. Add some salt to taste.
7. Blend the soup ingredients in high speed blender and serve - check that it's seasoned enough.
8. Sprinkle the topping in the middle of the soup and add some coriander for some colour and flavour.
9. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

* I use rice brand oil but any high heat oil would work. Just keep in mind you want it to be a neutral tasting one so it doesn't take away from the recipe flavours.

Word of warning: If your blender is not good with very hot liquids, please let it cool for at least 30mins to an hour before blending. My blender can handle it and I make sure I take extreme care.

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