Pumpkin Soup

Hallowe'en is now such a bitter sweet time of year for me which hangs heavy on my heart. Throughout my childhood it was always a time for celebration, as it was my Grandad's birthday and we lived in a street full of family friends so trick or treating was quite an event. Last Hallowe'en we went to Weston Park with my brother's family and it was such a magical time.There is nothing more lovely than seeing your own children with those of your siblings. I remember how truly happy I felt and that everything in my world was better than I ever could of have imagined. And then during the next week, my life changed forever, events beyond my worst nightmares shaped the rest of my life and my heart was permanently broken.

Soup is always so comforting and seeing as I'm a vegetarian, chicken soup isn't really on my menu but I do love pumpkin soup. Especially when the pumpkins have been home grown.

This is the pumpkin happily growing amongst the weeds at the allotment.

And for the last week it has been sitting on the kitchen table with other pumpkins we grew and the crocheted pumpkin I made last year.

Then today I made it into pumpkin soup, served in the pumpkin.

Finally eaten in bowls made out of pumpkins.

Recipe for Pumpkin Soup

The flesh of the biggest pumpkin you manage to grow

A couple of onions

Some celery sticks (it's really worth growing your own, we have loads of plants left, they even survived the first frost)

One diced potato

A couple of cloves of crushed garlic

Herbs from the garden (today I used thyme and sage)

Vegetable stock ( I didn't have any so I used water!)

Left over cream from the fridge

A pipkin of pepper

A smidgen of salt

Olive oil

Butter

(It's soup so it doesn't really matter a great deal about the quantities but you should definitely have a good proportion of pumpkin)

Roast the pumpkin in the oven with the garlic and potato until they are all soft.

Soften the chopped celery and onions in butter, then add some herbs

Mix everything together in a large pot (not the cream) and cook it until it looks yummy.

Get a small child who has read Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, night, after night, after night, to judge the seasoning and stir it.

Finally add the cream.

If you want you can toast the seeds in the oven until crispy and add to the top (I toasted some and Charlie ate them all so I toasted some more and forgot to put them on the top).

Most importantly save some seed to grow next year.