a little zaftig » Soups

Stinging Nettle Soup

Laura — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:19:55 +0000

Spring has come to Minnesota, hesitantly and then with a rush. This week the trees have leafed out, apple and plum trees have blossomed, and the lilacs are ready to burst into bloom. Winter is a barren season in Minnesota, and spring comes begrudgingly. When it finally arrives, seemingly overnight, from dim gray to shades of green, barren places are filled with color and softness. The grass is suddenly long and in need of mowing. Shoots push through the earth without notice until they are high or in flower. Owl babies peek from the tops of dead trees, goslings toddle across the road, mallard couples waddle across the lawn. After the long winter, it’s nice to wander and gather wild and green things to eat. Use caution as you collect nettle, as even a light brush against your skin can be painful. If you wear gloves whenever you handle it you needn’t worry. And a brief boil neutralizes the stinging formic acid. If you’ve never tried it, grab a guidebook and search it out. Then simmer a pot of this simple soup, softened by cubes of potato and celery and leek.

Stinging Nettle Soup
Yield: about four servings

4 c. loosely packed stinging nettles
Olive oil for the pan
2 small leeks, diced and rinsed thoroughly
2 ribs celery, diced
1 clove garlic, minced finely
4 c. chicken stock (recipe here)
1 small waxy potato, such as Yukon Gold, peeled and diced into very small cubes
salt and pepper

Bring a large covered pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice water and place a colander in your sink.

Wearing gloves, pick the leaves and tender stems from bunches of stinging nettle. Discard the thicker stems.

Boil the nettle leaves for one minute.

Drain them in the colander and place them in the ice water.

Over medium heat, warm the same pot that you used to boil the nettles. When it is hot, drizzle in a few turns of olive oil around the pan.

When the oil is hot, add the leeks and celery and a bit of salt and pepper. Saute until tender and taking on just a touch of color, about five minutes.

Add the garlic and stir for one minute.

Add the chicken stock and the potatoes. Raise the heat and bring the soup to a boil. Then lower the heat and simmer the soup until the potatoes are quite tender, about ten minutes.

Squeeze out the moisture from the nettles and give them a rough chop. Add them to the soup. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Simple Leek and Potato Soup with Ham

Laura — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:23:20 +0000

Stubborn grey winter is hanging on in Minnesota. We had snow fall briefly yesterday and a couple of days before that, and the temperatures have been in the low 30s. The trees are still bare, but the buds have begun to pop on shrubs and lilacs despite the cold, and the owls have returned. On days this cold it seems that the sun will never warm and the leaves will never unfurl. If it’s chilly in the evenings where you are, too, this soup is a nice way to warm up. The potatoes are incredibly creamy, and the flavors are soft, unlike the weather outside. I added some cubed ham for my Sweet Boy, who is rowing in this bitter cold, but you could keep it simple, too. Ask your butcher for an extra thick slice if you plan to add it.

Simple Leek and Potato Soup
Yield: about 8 generous servings

Ingredients:
a drizzle of olive oil for the pan
1 medium onion, diced
3 small leeks, diced and washed thoroughly
3 stalks celery from the inner part of the stalk with leaves
3 pounds Yukon gold (or other waxy potatoes), peeled and cut into ¾“ cubes
4 c. chicken stock (recipe for homemade here)
1 pound ham, cubed (optional)
1 c. half and half
salt and pepper

Method:

In a large pot over medium heat, drizzle a few turns of olive oil around the pan. When the oil is hot, add the onion and a pinch of salt and pepper and sauté until it is beginning to soften.

Add the leeks and celery and another pinch of salt and pepper and sauté until they are beginning to soften.

Add the potatoes and stock. If you will be adding the ham later, season the soup judiciously. If you are not adding the ham, season as you usually would.

Cover the pot, raise the heat, and bring the soup to a simmer. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are quite tender, about 25 minutes.

If you like a creamy soup, puree the soup at this point and then add the ham, if you wish. If you prefer a chunky soup, add the ham halfway through cooking the potatoes. The potatoes will break down a bit to add body to the stock, and you may also smash a few cubes of potato to add additional texture, if you wish.

Stir in the half and half. Do not allow it to come to a boil after this point.

Taste and adjust the seasoning.

The soup may be rewarmed over low heat.

Creamy Parsnip, Celeriac, & Turnip Soup

Laura — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:01:44 +0000

Today is my Dear Husband’s birthday. We have been sweet for each other since August of 1985, and married for almost 22 years. He still melts my butter. Happy Birthday, my dear one.

My post recipe today isn’t very celebratory; we celebrated this weekend. But this little soup is one of the most elegant and certainly the silkiest I’ve ever had. It highlights the pure flavor of parsnips, ever so faintly floral. Then you taste the celeriac, rather delicate. And then comes the earthy note of the turnip. It was a nice surprise last night; we ate it while we watched the blizzard, a beautiful snowfall our local weatherman has dubbed the second mega storm of the season. I don’t know about mega anything, but the view from my desk is lovely now, a dusting of snow on every tree branch, a little cap on the chimneys across the street, and houses perched on a blanket of white. Today my friend Sonja is skiing up the block for coffee and a nibble. Fresh snow, good company, a pot of soup, satisfying work, and a birthday cake and kisses after dinner. Perfect day. …And it’s snowing again!

Creamy Parsnip, Celeriac, & Turnip Soup Tips
Parsnips resemble carrots in shape, though their ends are slightly more bulbous. They are pale yellow orange. Look for firm parsnips, and peel and dice them as you would a carrot.

Celeriac is a root vegetable related to celery which shares its delicate flavor. It is a knobbly orb with a tough, unsightly outer surface, and is light brown in color. To peel it, slice off both ends with a sharp knife. Then place the celeriac cut down for stability, and slice off the fibrous outer surface in a downward curve from top to bottom. Rotate and continue until all of the outer surface has been removed. Slice it into discs, the discs into sticks, and the sticks into a dice.

Turnips are a bulbous root vegetable, white and purple in color. You may peel them with a vegetable peeler. Then slice off the ends, slice into discs, the discs into sticks, and the sticks into a dice.

Leeks are related to onions and garlic and have a soft onion flavor. They look like overgrown scallions. They can harbor quite a bit of grit, so wash them well, especially between the layers.

Creamy Parsnip, Celeriac, & Turnip Soup
Yield: about 12 servings

Ingredients:
8 large parsnips, peeled and diced
1 large celeriac, peeled and diced
2 medium turnips, peeled and diced
1 medium leek, trimmed of its hairy and green fibrous ends, washed, and diced
Chicken stock to cover, about 8 c. (homemade recipe here or Swanson’s organic)
salt and pepper
½ c. heavy cream (I love Cedar Summit Farms.)

Method:

Place all of the vegetables in a large soup pot and cover them with chicken stock. Season with pepper and a little salt, cover the pot, and bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer gently until the vegetables are quite tender, about 30 minutes.

Puree the soup until it is very silky with an immersion blender, or in batches in a conventional blender.

Stir in the heavy cream.

Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

North Woods Split Pea Soup with Ham

Laura — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:38:07 +0000

My Honey Girl’s best friend Laura shares my love of split pea soup. During their middle and high school years, on the occasion that I made a pot, she would bring over a little container and bring home a portion for herself. She and my Honey Girl always seemed to be laughing or squealing about something, baking silly shaped cookies and kooky recipes, and painting murals of the past year in school. They have been best friends since they were 12, and Laura’s family live around the corner, so she was a fixture at our house, and one we were happy to embrace. I miss having her around the house now that she is in college.

Split pea soup is so easy to make. This is my ultra-simple version. It takes about an hour and a half to make, but even on a busy night, you can chop up an onion and some carrots and celery, toss the rest of the short list of ingredients into a pot, and relax for a bit while it simmers into an inexpensive, fortifying, and warming bowl. It’s nice to have a pot of soup in the winter—especially nice when it’s ten below zero out there and you’d rather cozy up inside; for the next couple of days it’s an instant answer to the proverbial question of what to eat. Laura, there’s a container in the refrigerator with your name on it, just in case you stop by, chunky style the way we like it.

North Woods Split Pea Soup
Yield: about eight servings

Ingredients:
2 c. split peas
8 c. water
1 large onion, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
a few sprigs of thyme and parsley and a bay leaf tied into a bundle with cheesecloth and string
1 ham hock
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Place all of the ingredients except the salt into a large soup pot over high heat.

Cover the pot and bring the soup to a boil.

Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer gently for about 1 ½ hours, or until the split peas are tender and the broth is silky.

Remove the ham hock with a tongs and slice it into shards with a fork and knife, discarding any fat and skin.

If you prefer a silky smooth soup, puree the soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a conventional blender at this point.

Return the ham to the pot.

Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

I’m serving this with biscuits tonight.

Lacinato Blue Kale Soup with Creamy White Beans and Ham (Slow and Lightning Quick)

Laura — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:27:30 +0000

Okay, confessions first: I love kale. But even my Dear Husband and Sweet Boy, who would never be true cheerleaders for a soup with kale, eat it up happily. And now that Americans seem to be gobbling down bitter salad greens like arugula and frisee, I hope I can talk you into looking past kale’s reputation for bitterness. Simmered in chicken stock with a meaty ham hock, aromatics, and creamy white beans, this soup is winter comfort food that’s darn good for you—the kale is really just along for the ride, and any bitterness is diffused in the stock. I used lacinato blue, or dinosaur, kale for this soup, but you could use any kale—curly green or red Russian kale. Look for kale that is immaculately fresh and has no yellow spots, and use it within a couple of days; it gets bitter as it ages. If you really can’t stomach the idea of kale, substitute spinach. I’ve written two versions of this recipe, one that is a long-simmer soup with dried beans and a ham hock, and one that can be thrown together on a busy night in under 30 minutes with tinned beans and thick slices of ham. Both are a delicious way to eat your vegetables.

Kale Soup Tips
If you’ve never prepared kale before, it’s very simple. The leaves have a rather tough stem or rib, which can be removed by slicing on either side. Slice out all of the stems and discard them, and then slice the kale into ribbons. Easy peasy.

Kale nutrition facts here.

Slow Lacinato Blue Kale Soup with Creamy White Beans and Ham
Yield: about eight servings

Ingredients:
2 c. dried white beans, such as great northern or cannellini
8 c. chicken stock (homemade recipe here or Swanson’s organic)
1 meaty ham hock
1 bay leaf
1 medium onion, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 large bunch of kale, stems trimmed out and cut into ribbons
pepper and perhaps a bit of salt

Method:

Place the beans into a large pan and cover them with four cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil for one minute. Then let the beans sit for one hour.

Drain the beans and transfer them to a large soup pot. Add the chicken stock, the ham hock, the bay leaf, and a few grinds of pepper, and bring the soup to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer gently until the beans are soft, about one hour.

Add the onion, carrots, and celery and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Remove the ham hock, and tear the meat into bite-sized shards with a knife and fork. Add the ham back to the soup pot.

Add the kale and simmer just until it has wilted.

Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Lightning Quick Kale Soup with Creamy White Beans and Ham
Yield: about eight servings

Ingredients:
a little olive oil for the pan
1 medium onion, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 bay leaf
2 tins of white beans, such as great northern or cannellini
2- ½ “ thick slices of good ham, cubed
8 c. chicken stock (homemade recipe here or Swanson’s organic)
1 large bunch kale, stems trimmed out and cut into ribbons
pepper and perhaps a little salt

Method:

Warm a soup pot over low heat. Drizzle a bit of olive oil into the pan. When it is warm, add the onions and sauté until soft.

Add the carrots and celery and sauté for a few minutes.

Add the bay leaf, beans, ham, chicken stock, and a few grinds of pepper, and raise the heat. Bring the soup to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the soup for a few minutes, checking that the vegetables are tender.

Add the kale and simmer just until it is wilted.

Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Chicken Soup with Egg Dumplings

Sophia — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:37:10 +0000

A Guest Post by my Honey Girl

From the way my mom has taught me and talked to me about baking, I know each of her meals and after school treats for us were made with love. My mom’s cooking is one way that she cares for us everyday. She’s always said that you can taste the difference if you cook angrily, and that she believes her food tastes tired if she feels tired. And as corny as it sounds, I think she is right. Each dough she kneads and vegetable she chops is given what our family calls a “love infusion.” And ever since I was a little girl when we get sick we request chicken and dumpling soup. Years later, mom’s signal to start plucking a chicken and chopping up carrots is a sniffle. Just recently I woke up while I was home over break with a cold and mom made me her magic soup. After spending months away at college little things like showering without flip-flops and having socks magically appear clean and folded in my room are just few of the comforts of home I miss. But these daily comforts pale in comparison to the feeling of being cared for by your mom when sick. Finishing off a bowl of chicken and dumpling soup makes all the difference and is one such meal where the love in her food is almost palpable. My Norweigan great grandfather made this soup for my mother, she made it for me and for my brother, and some day I hope to make it for my little ones when they are sick.

Egg Dumpling Tips
This is a gosh-and-by-golly recipe and I have never measured the ingredients. Begin with beaten eggs. Sprinkle in a bit of flour and stir. Add a bit more. It will appear that it is going to be a hopelessly lumpy mess. Add a bit more flour. Adding a few tablespoons at a time and stirring just a bit to get a sense of whether or not you’re getting close, continue this process until the egg and flour begin to come together and have a little stretch. You’ll feel it. If the mixture is too loose, the dumplings will be too dense. If you add too much flour, they become fairly tasteless puffballs. You’re looking for cohesive batter with a little tug, a little stretch, as you mix it or lift the spoon. As soon as you get there, stop adding flour.

This recipe also falls into the gosh-and-by-golly category in that you can add whatever you like. In fact, when I have been quite ill, I have just brought some chicken stock to a simmer and made dumplings alone. Add whatever you have. A leek is nice, a bit of onion, carrots, celery or celery leaves, a little garlic, cubed roasted chicken, parsley. If you have a bunch of dill, waving the bunch through the broth adds nice flavor, too.

You can make these dumplings any size. We prefer to use a dinner teaspoon. You can make tiny dumplings or large ones, too. Just adjust your cooking time a bit.

The finished dumplings should be eggy and chewy.

Chicken Soup with Egg Dumplings
Yield: about four servings

Ingredients:
4 c. chicken stock (preferably homemade)
some cubed roasted chicken, perhaps 1 c.
a small onion and/or a small leek, diced
a few carrots, peeled and cut into coins
a few stalks of celery and their leaves, diced
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
a handful of parsley, chopped

5 eggs
flour
salt and pepper

Method:

Warm a soup pot over medium low heat. When it is warm, drizzle in just a touch of olive oil and add the garlic. Saute for one minute, or until fragrant.

Pour in the stock, the chicken, onion, leek, carrots, and celery and bring it to a simmer. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile make the dumplings. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and season them with salt and pepper fairly generously. Stir in flour bit by bit until the mixture comes together and there is a slight tug on the spoon.

Remove the pot from the burner and wait for the simmering to cease.

When the stock is still, using two teaspoons, scoop a mound of egg dumpling batter with one spoon and scrape it off and into the pot with the other spoon. Continue making dumplings and placing them into the stock, placing them with a bit of room between them. Allow them to rest in the hot broth for about two minutes or until they are beginning to set.

Return the pot to the burner and bring the stock to a low simmer. Simmer the dumplings for about three minutes, or until they are pale and beginning to rise. Turn over the dumplings and simmer for another three minutes, or until they are cooked through.

Scatter in the parsley. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Simple Puy Lentil Soup with Spinach

Laura — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:25:25 +0000

I make a loose plan for a week’s worth of menus every Thursday night and make my routine call for requests to my Dear Husband and my two sweet teenagers. Usually it’s an amusing list of what they don’t want: “No wet meat!” my Honey Girl who dislikes braised dishes might yell from the kitchen. I wonder how many Thursday nights I have had the same conversation with my family about this particular soup. No matter how many times I make it, its presence on the menu list is always greeted with protests, groans, promises to refuse to eat it, attempts at bribes to never make it again, and general moaning. I try futilely each time to convince them that they love it. Then, the magic happens. I make it and we sit down to dinner and, in genuine awe, they love it. They gobble it down and ask for another bowl and swear they will never forget how much they love this lentil soup. Until, of course, the next time it’s on the menu. Just make it. It’s an ugly cousin soup full of things that are too good for you to be truly delicious, but somehow are together. And it’s a perfect meal on a night when you are bone tired or cold or can’t face anything ambitious in the kitchen.

Simple Puy Lentil Soup Tips
Puy lentils are French green lentils. They have a slightly earthy flavor and retain their shape nicely when cooked. You may substitute any kind of lentils, but doing so may produce a soup which is more akin to dal or traditional split pea soup, and may change your cooking time. Don’t worry about this. Just check the pot periodically.

This soup is nice with a few shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano and a rustic loaf of bread.

This soup is even better the second day. The spinach will have lost its bright green color, but it is still delicious. Add more stock as needed to thin it a bit. It keeps covered in the refrigerator for five days.

Simple Puy Lentil Soup with Spinach
Yield: 1 large pot of soup, about 12 generous servings

Ingredients:
Olive oil for the pan
1 large onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
4 ribs celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 ½ c. puy lentils
28 ounces diced tomatoes (I prefer Bionaturae organic from Italy or Muir Glen organic)
6 c. chicken stock, plus additional stock to thin the soup as needed (homemade or Swanson’s organic)
20 ounces fresh spinach
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat a large soup pot over medium low heat.

Drizzle in a few turns of olive oil.

Add the onions and a bit of salt and pepper and sauté until translucent.

Add the carrots and celery and a bit more salt and pepper and sauté until tender.

Add the garlic and stir briefly.

Add the lentils and the diced tomatoes and their juice and 6 cups stock and season with salt and pepper.

Bring to a simmer over high heat.

Reduce heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the spinach and stir until wilted.

Taste and adjust seasoning.

Butternut Squash Soup with Arkansas Black Apples, Cream, & Fresh Marjoram, Thyme, and Sage

Laura — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:11:50 +0000

Do you ever walk into the grocery store with a plan and suddenly you’re so seized, so mesmerized by an ingredient, either new or in its most glorious incarnation, that you can’t even remember what you thought you were going to cook? That happened to me today when I saw Arkansas black apples for the first time. What dark beauties they are! Happily, the produce people at my market are as silly-happy about these things as I am, and they don’t look at me with a quizzical look when I approach to gush. In fact, they join right in. I think I was going to make a roast chicken for dinner tonight, which seems very ho hum now since I paired these beautiful apples, dense and sweet with a little zing, with buttnernut squash, onion, fresh marjoram, thyme, and sage, chicken stock, and some rich cream. Fall goodness in a bowl. Now I wish my family would hurry home from work and school so that we could tear into a loaf of dark bread, open some nice wine, and enjoy this soup.

Music for making butternut squash soup with Arkansas black apples:
Alison Krauss’ A Hundred Miles or More

Arkansas Black Apples
Arkansas blacks are an heirloom varietal and the darkest apple cultivar. They are burgundy in color on the tree and continue to darken in storage. The apples are tart and dense when first picked and sweeten and soften a bit with keeping. You may store them in a cool, dark, dry place for up to six months.

Squash and Apple Soup Tips
Here’s the thing. This sounds like a fancy recipe, but it’s just squash and apple soup. You can really use any winter squash and any apple varietal.

Making a soup like this, I think, requires that you follow your instincts rather than a recipe. To start add just enough stock to come up nearly to the top of the squash. When you puree the soup, gradually add more stock, if needed, until you have a silky soup which appeals to you. I keep a little stack of spoons next to me and take a little taste as I go. When the soup is the perfect consistency, you’ll know it.

The beauty of a soup like this, well any soup for that matter, is that you can personalize it. Love thyme? Add a little more. Hate sage? Skip it. Don’t have fresh herbs? Substitute a smaller amount of dried. Hate apples? Use a couple of pears. Cooking for one? Use a small squash, one apple, and decrease the stock and cream.

To prep the squash, cut off the top and the bottom and cut the squash in half. Slice the peel off from top to bottom steadying the squash with your non-dominant hand. Then slice each half open and scrape out any seeds and pulp. Cut the squash into strips and then into cubes about ½ “ in diameter.

Once you have added the cream, do not allow the soup to come to a boil. If you need to reheat it, do so over low heat.

Butternut Squash Soup with Arkansas Black Apples, Cream, & Fresh Marjoram, Thyme and Sage

Ingredients:
1 very large buttnernut squash, cubed
2 Arkansas black apples, or other varietal, cubed
1 medium onion, diced
4 to 8 c. chicken stock, depending on the volume of your squash
1 c. heavy cream (I love Cedar Summit Farms.)
a small handful each of fresh marjoram, thyme, and sage, chopped finely
a little olive oil for the pan
salt and pepper

Method:

Warm a soup pot over medium low heat.

Drizzle in a few turns of olive oil and add the onions. Season them with a little salt and pepper and saute them until they are tender but now brown, about five minutes.

Add the cubed squash and apples, a little salt and peeper, and enough stock to reach nearly the top of the vegetables and fruit.

Bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer gently until the squash and apples are very tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the herbs and the cream and warm the soup through.

Remove from the heat and using either an immersion blender or a conventional blender, puree the soup until it is silky, gradually adding more stock if necessary.

Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Scatter each serving with fresh herbs if you wish.

Pumpkin Soup with Pancetta, Crème Fraiche, and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Laura — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:32:53 +0000

It’s a blustery day here today. It’s raining, and it’s the first really cold rain of the fall. When I headed to the market, I was underdressed, damp and shivering, and clueless about what to cook for dinner. Then a display of pie pumpkins caught my attention as I entered, and I couldn’t help but picture them transformed into a warming bowl of soup. “As a first course?” my Dear Husband asked sheepishly and with a grin when I told him. So with a chicken and some vegetables popped into the oven to roast, we’ll all be happy and warm tonight. This is delicious and filling, velvety and comforting. The pumpkin simmers in chicken stock with root vegetables, peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon sticks, whole nutmeg, allspice berries, and thyme, and it’s finished with a generous glug of rich cream. Make it on a cold, rainy day.

Serving Suggestions

This soup would make a nice lunch or a lovely first course. It would also make a nice light dinner with some crusty bread and a peppery salad. You could substitute bacon for the pancetta, and sour cream for the crème fraiche and I think it would be equally tasty. Some fresh sage leaves crisped in butter would also make a pretty and delicious garnish.

Pumpkin Soup with Pancetta, Crème Fraiche, and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:
1 pie pumpkin, 7-8 pounds, cleaned and with its flesh and seeds scooped out and reserved*
1 large onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 pounds buttercream potatoes (Yukon golds would make a fine substitute.)
8 c. chicken stock, homemade or Swanson’s organic
a drizzle of olive oil for the pot and for the seeds
1 c. heavy cream (I love Cedar Summit Farms.)
salt
2 cinnamon sticks
small piece of whole nutmeg
10-15 allspice berries
1 star anise
1 T. dried thyme
10-15 black peppercorns
2 slices of pancetta, about 1/3” thick, diced into cubes

*If, like me, you don’t particularly feel like sorting through the pumpkin goop for the seeds the day you make this soup, you may use raw pumpkin seeds and toast them. Instructions below. Shorten the baking time to 10 minutes.

Method:

Wash and dry your pumpkin. Slice off the top carefully and scoop out the seeds and the stringy flesh. Separate the seeds, wash them, and place them on a sheet to dry. Use a metal ice cream scoop to remove the flesh from the interior of the pumpkin as you would a melon baller.

Warm a large pot over medium low heat. Drizzle in a few turns of olive oil and add the onions. Sprinkle them with a pinch of salt and sauté them until they are becoming translucent.

Add the carrots and the celery and a pinch of salt and sauté them for a few minutes.

Add the potatoes, pumpkin flesh, chicken stock and salt to taste. Cover the pot and bring the soup to a boil. Lower the heat to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer until the vegetable are quite tender and you can mash a potato and a piece of pumpkin with the back of a spoon, about 45 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, prepare the pumpkin seeds and the pancetta.

Place the pumpkin seeds on parchment-lined baking sheet, drizzle them with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle them generously with salt. Give them a toss and bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are crisp and golden.

Fry the cubes of pancetta over medium heat in a frying pan until they are golden and crisp.

Using an immersion or conventional blender, puree the soup until it is silky.

Stir in the cream and adjust the seasoning.

Ladle the soup into your hollow pumpkin.

To serve, fill a bowl with soup, swirl in a dollop of crème fraiche, and sprinkle on some crisp pancetta cubes and toasted pumpkin seeds.