Roasted Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup ~ served with Brazilian Style Collards & Pulled Pork
We used a Jarrahdale pumpkin for this soup, but any tasty baking pumpkin will do. The soup makes a great base for a variety of fresh greens and proteins. Try it with crispy pork sausage and red kale or shredded roast chicken and beet greens.
1 Small Baking Pumpkin (ours was about 5 inches round. If your pumpkin is larger simply double the rest of the ingredients or freeze half after roasting for future use)
1 Large Sweet Potato, peeled and cut into 4 - 5 slices lengthwise
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 Small White Onion, finely chopped
1 Large Clove Garlic, minced
½ tsp Cinnamon
1 TBSP Ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Urfa Chili Flakes (this chili is worth seeking out if you don’t have it. or sub with your fav chili or increase the paprika and add a ¼ tsp cayenne)
1 tsp Paprika
4 Cups Vegetable or Chicken Stock
Salt & Pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Slice pumpkin into quarters and scoop out seeds. Put seeds aside if you would like to roast them ~ delicious sprinkled on soup just before eating! Here we used toasted sesame seeds.
Place pumpkin and sweet potato slices on a large baking tray lined with parchment paper. Drizzle all with olive oil and coat thoroughly with your hands. Sprinkle cinnamon over the pumpkin and a bit of salt over all.
Roast in oven for 20 minutes, turn over sweet potato slices and check again in 10 minutes. The sweet potato will likely be done, some browning on edges and soft. If the pumpkin is not yet fork tender put it back in and check every 10 until done. Larger pumpkins take longer!
When done allow pan to cool until you can handle the pumpkin and scoop the flesh from the skin. Set the sweet potato and pumpkin flesh aside.
Warm a heavy bottomed dutch oven or stock pot on medium low heat. Add Olive Oil and once heated through add onions. Cook slowly for about 8 minutes (add more oil if needed) until very soft and lightly browning.
Add garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add remaining spices and stir for 30 seconds (if the pot is dry, add a bit more oil before spices).
Add Stock and stir in pumpkin and sweet potato slices.
We like to use a potato masher to mash the pumpkin and potato to create a rustic textured soup. You can also use an immersion blender to make it creamy and smooth.
Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
Serve with your favorite greens and protein of choice and a sprinkle of toasted pumpkin or sesame seeds. We cheated here and included some leftover pulled pork from Moe’s BBQ - delicious!
Brazilian style collards are a great way to cook collards when they are fresh. Simply pull the leaves from the stems, stack and roll them up and slice super thin. Blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes and drain, pushing out as much water as possible. Put back in the dry pot with olive oil and some minced garlic and cook as you would any fresh green - no more than 5 minutes or so.