Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Roasted pumpkin soup with almonds and spicy dukkah oil a la Silvena Rowe

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From the recipe archives, originally posted in October 2011. Totally worth making!!! 
PS Check the comments section - Silvena Rowe herself left a comment - how cool is that!?

I spotted this soup recipe in Silvena Rowe's beautiful Orient Express: Fast food from the eastern Mediterranean, one of my recent cookbook acquisitions. I've been making various pumpkin soups and certainly wasn't looking for a new soup recipe, but this one caught my eye because of almonds. There are almonds both inside the soup and in the dukkah-mixture (Not sure what dukkah is? You can read more about it here). We cooked four recipes from Silvena's book last Sunday (see the menu below, scribbled on our newly painted kitchen wall), and the soup was very well received. The almonds add a thickness and a lovely texture to the soup, the dark red pomegranate seeds are a true eye candy, and the dukkah oil is a wonderful flavour enhancer. I more or less followed the recipe, though I used a bit more pumpkin and less chicken stock, and used some coriander/cilantro for garnish.

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You can either use any orange-fleshed winter squash here - butternut squash or a Hokkaido pumpkin (potimarron in French). Well, you could use any winter squash, but orange-fleshed one looks prettiest :)

More pumpkin soup recipes @ Nami-Nami:
Pumpkin soup with nutmeg
Pumpkin soup with thyme
Estonian pumpkin and semolina soup

Roasted pumpkin/butternut squash soup with dukkah
(Röstitud kõrvitsa supp mandlite ja vürtsiõliga)
Serves six

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For the dukkah oil:
50 g while almonds
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
0.5 Tbsp cumin seeds
0.25 Tbsp fennel seeds
5-6 Tbsp olive oil

For the soup:
1.2 kg orange-fleshed pumpkin or squash
8 fresh sage leaves, chopped
2 onions, peeled and quartered
6 garlic cloves, peeled
4 Tbsp olive oil
750 ml chicken stock (3 cups)
100 g ground almonds
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
pomegranate seeds
fresh coriander/cilantro leaves

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F.

Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into 2-3 cm (1 inch) chunks. Place onto a large roasting tray alongside the onion quarters, garlic cloves and chopped sage leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil:

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Cook the vegetables in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft. Remove from the oven and cool.

Make the dukkah oil while the pumpkin is roasting. Place the spices and almonds onto a small dry frying pan and cook over a moderate heat until fragrant and slightly golden (keep an eye on them, as the spices burn easily!):

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Using a pestle and mortar (or a small food processor), bruise the spices and almonds until you've got a coarsely ground mixture. Add the oil, put aside.

When the vegetables are cooked, place them into a food processor or a blender. Blend to a purée, adding a little of the vegetable stock if necessary. Return the pumpkin purée into the saucepan, add the rest of the stock. Bring into a slow boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the soup is smooth and slightly thickened. Stir in the almonds, season to taste.

To serve, ladle the soup into warmed bowls. Spoon some dukkah oil on top, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and garnish with some cilantro/coriander.

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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so impressed ! Used to visit your blogg so much before, but since i opened Quince, i have been so busy! Image looks so beautiful! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Sorry it me Silvena Rowe, not sur how to publish comments! Silvena Rowe

MT Hough said...

You must have heard me. I was just saying I needed a good pumpkin soup recipe to try. =) Thanks.

janet @ the taste space said...

I think I still have some dukkah kicking around. This looks like a wonderful way to use it. Thanks for sharing. :)

MariRow said...

Culinary telepathy! I just bought a muscat pumpkin (huge & bright orangey) and was wondering how I should cook it. This recipe is exactly in my line of thinking - the dukkah oil would be the bonus part!
Lovely, yummy looking fotos!
Stort tack!

Sara said...

I recently had a look at this book from the library. It's lovely! As is this recipe and your execution. Pomegranate seeds on anything are the perfect garnish.

Kristopher said...

I made this, excellent. 99% of pumpkin recipes are "pumpkin spice" or "pumpkin curry", this is something different.

Ryan said...

Hi! My name is Ryan and I’m the editor of howtocookfantasticfood.com. I think you have an awesome food site so I posted a link to it in our blog directory. I wasn't able to find your email address on your site but I’d like to invite you to be a part of our Featured Website program. I would love to send you more details about the program, so if you are interested, please email me at ryan [at] howtocookfantasticfood [dot] com.

Juc said...

Kõlab taevalikult! Ja näeb samasugune välja ka.

Jesica @ pencil Kitchen said...

Hmmm.. Almond too! This looks great! :)

Anonymous said...

looks delicious! Have been looking for some exciting new soup recipes for a while and this one looks like just the ticket; it's lovely to see one that hasn't been blended within an inch of its life and still maintains a bit of texture...

Pille said...

Silvena - what a lovely surprise! I had no idea that you're following my blog - I'm flattered! I'll definitely to come and visit The Quince when in London!

Melinda - well, here you go :)

Janet - I hadn't thought of using dukkah to garnish a soup either, but what a neat idea!

Mari - dukkah oil was a treat!

Sara - I agree. They look like gorgeous ruby pearls!

Kristopher - I guess you're right. I love pumpkin soup with cumin, nutmeg, ginger - you name it :)

Juc - oli tõesti taevalikult maitsev ja kaunis supike :)

Jesica - almond adds both texture and flavour, do try it!

Anon. - well, it was blended, but probably not to the inch of its life :D And ground almonds add extra texture, too!

Roast Pumpkin Soup said...

I have a plan to cook this soup for a date.. with me very sweet girl friend..

The Mersea Diet said...

Thanks for sharing your recipe..i will try to make it this night..

Margaret@Kitchen Frau said...

I have 2 of Silvena's cookbooks, and just love reading them for inspiration. Your rendition of her recipe is wonderful and makes me want to try it right now!

Jeff @ Cheese-burger.net said...

This soup is amazing! The almonds definitely adds thickness and flavor to the soup.