Pumpkin and Lentil Soup

This soup is getting into the spirit of halloween with pumpkins. I bet you just got finished carving your halloween pumpkin with a huge scary face, and now have pumpkin guts all over the floor. So the question now is, what to do with them? Luckily for you guys, I have here a perfect recipe to get rid of those gross looking guts and turn them into something delicious. I was looking on the web for a good pumpkin soup, or something pumpkin because, as you are probably counting down the days to halloween, there's only a week left! I found this great pumpkin soup recipe and thought, y'know, I bet thet everyone else is looking for halloween pumpkin fall foods, so I should share this with them. If you want to see some of the other soup recipes that they have, go to the goodfood website.
The ingredients that you will want for this recipe are:

1 tablespoon of olive oil, plus 1 teaspoon
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
about 800 grams of chopped pumpkin flesh, plus the seeds
100 grams of split red lentils
1/2 small packet of thyme, leaves picked and extra to serve
pinch of salt and sugar
50 grams of crème fraîche, plus extra to serve

The first thing you will want to do is to heat the 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pan. Fry the onions until softened and starting to turn golden. Stir in the garlic, pumpkin flesh, lentils, and thyme, then pour in the hot stock. Season this, cover, and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes until the lentils and vegetables are tender.

While waiting for it to simmer, wash the pumpkin seeds and remove any flesh still stuck to them and dry them with a paper towel. Heat the 1 teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan and fry the pumpkin seeds until they start to jump and pop. Stir the seeds frequently, but put a lid on the pan when you are not stirring them so that they don't jump out of the pan. Once the seeds look nutty and toasted, add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar, and stir well.

"Whizz" or blend the cooked pumpkin mixture in a food processor until it is smooth, and then add the crème fraîche and "whizz" or blend again. Taste it for seasoning.

Serve the soup with a spoonful of the crème fraîche, a few of the thyme leaves, and the toasted seeds on top.

Enjoy!

Image Curtesy of bbcgoodfoods