homemade soup

Homemade soup is so easy to make...

the beauty of making your own soup is that:

•  you can use whatever meat/vegies you happen to have in the fridge
• you control how much salt and fat goes in
• you can freeze some for later

I find using pumpkin as a base for pureed soup gives it a really rich, sweet flavour. After trying every type of pumpkin, I found that "jap" is about the sweetest (I thought butternut would be, but no).

 Pumpkin & Whatever Soup

1.5kg jap pumpkin, peeled & chopped

1 leek, sliced

1 onion, diced

3 medium zucchini, sliced

1 medium sweet potato, peeled & chopped

4 cups chicken stock

cracked black pepper

dash of nutmeg to serve

knob of butter

1. Heat a large heavy based saucepan and melt butter. Add onion and saute 2-3 minutes, allowing onion to caramelise slightly 
2. Add leek and stir for 1 minute
3. Add pumpkin and sweet potato and allow them to brown slightly
4. Add zucchini and stir in well
5. Add stock, bring to the boil while stirring
6. Sprinkle with cracked pepper
7. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until vegies are completely soft & mashable
8. Using a stick or normal blender, puree soup until desired consistency. (most kids prefer the soup smooth; they can't see the bits of veg)
9. Serve piping hot with crusty bread, toast points or crackers

tips: - use whatever vegies you may have on hand, as long as it equates to roughly 7-8 cups

       - a swirl of cream is delicious

       - if desired, add salt to taste after cooking

       - I always use real butter for sauteing

       - use a potato masher for a chunkier result

       - vegetable stock may be used instead of chicken