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

Carrot And Coriander Soup

When was the last time you made a soup and everyone who ate it said, "Oooo, this is delicious, is there anymore?" I know that I am not yet a mom, so I can't really say that I have cooked for my children, because lets face it, I'm still thirteen, but I am almost fourteen! Only two more months, YAY! Anyway, back to food, I am still a teenager, but I have made dinner at home a bunch of times, and believe it or not, it is really fun! The best part is when I put it on the table, and even my eight year old brother says "That smells delicious Daisy." One of my personal favorite soups to make is a Carrot and Coriander, and it is such a simple recipe, I could make it in my sleep. For a lot of soups that I like to make, I will usually go to the Allrecipes website, but today I am using the New Covent Garden's Book of Soups.

The ingredients that the New Covent Garden's Book of Soups has are:

• 25 grams(1oz) butter
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed 
• 550 grams(1 1/4 lb) carrots
• 450 grams(1 lb) of which are roughly chopped
• 110 grams(4 oz) of which are coarsely grated
• 1 liter(1 3/4 pint) vegetable stock
• a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 1tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
• 150 mL(1/4 pint) single cream
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

The only other things you need are garnishes:

• 150 mL(1/4pint) yogurt
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander

I personally leave out the yogurt just because I like it better plain, but I know that some people do like it with yogurt. I also only put a little bit of coriander, a pinch or two of fresh chopped coriander on each bowl.

The preparation and cooking time comes to a total of 40 minutes, and this recipe will serve about six servings.

To start off, you melt the butter in a covered saucepan and cook the onion and garlic until they are soft, without coloring. Then you add the roughly chopped carrots, vegetable stock, and nutmeg. You cover the pan and bring it to a boil and let it simmer gently until the veggies are tender. let them cool for a bit and then puree them in a liquidizer (I use a vitimix blender) and then put the soup in a clean saucepan and stir in the grated carrots, coriander, and cream. Taste the soup to see if it needs any salt or pepper and then if you want to put yogurt in this is when you add it and the coriander on top.

This is one of my all time favorite soup recipes and I highly suggest that you try it.

Image Curtesy Of My French Country Home