A zero-waste way to eat a pumpkin

There’s nothing like a bowl of smooth and creamy pumpkin soup on a cold autumn or winter’s night (or day). But if you’re a vegan, or just lactose intolerant, (or just intolerant in general), it might be hard to find a soup for you.

Here’s a nice creamy pumpkin soup recipe that also has a hint of chilly, just to give it a little kick and add the slightest edge of masochism into this bowl of delight.

What you need:

>> 1 pumpkin, chopped into pieces of whatever size you want. You can use most types of pumpkin or butternut squash.

>> 1 onion, diced

>> 2 cloves of garlic, chopped

>> 1 small red chilli, chopped. Everyone has a different pain threshold when it comes to chilli, and chilli doesn’t turn on everyone’s pleasure sensors in the same way, so add as much or as little as you like. I add about a ¼ of a teaspoon of fresh chilli paste which is probably the equivalent of one small red chilli.

>> Oil

>> A pinch of nutmeg, not too much, unless you want it to taste Christmasy, just a little to give it some fragrance.

>> 1 cup of water

>> ⅓ of a can of coconut cream

>> Salt to taste

How to make it:

1. Do all your chopping, dicing, and can-opening. (Note: try to cut the pumpkin skin off in strips and don’t throw away the seeds!)

2. Saute the onion and garlic in a large pot on low heat until golden.

3. Add in all the other ingredients, turn up the heat, and put a lid on the pot.

4. Once it comes to a boil, turn down the heat to low and let simmer until the pumpkin is nice and soft.

5. Turn the heat off.

6. If your blender is fully heat resistant, then blend away. I use a hand-held blender, which does have some plastic on it, so I like to let the soup cool down a bit because I’m not sure if any plastic particles will come out of the blender into the near-boiling soup. Blend away until a smooth consistency.

The extras:

When you butcher a pumpkin, it’s great to eat it all up, inside and out. So here are the extras to the pumpkin soup. But you can also save them in the fridge to cook later.

The skins

1. Put the pumpkin skins into a deep frying pan or wok and boil in about a ⅓ cup of water.

2. Once the water has evaporated, pour in some olive oil and fry until your preferred level of fry or char.

3. Add salt, pepper, and/or mixed herbs and mix around just before you serve.

The seeds

1. Remove all the sides from the slimy innards of the pumpkin. Wash off the lingering stringy bits if you like.

2. In the same pan, after you’ve taken out the skins, put in the pumpkin seeds on low heat.

3. Constantly turn them over so they brown on all sides.

4. When they start popping, turn off the heat.

5. Add salt to taste.

So, there you have a zero-waste way to eat a pumpkin, inside and out, that will tantalize the taste-buds and calm the conscience.

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