Pumpkin, chorizo and chickpea soup
Hi Ladies,
The weather is starting to cool down a bit now so it’s time to get those soup recipes out of storage.
Soup is an excellent way to feed the family on a budget and it does wonders to fill you up without too many calories (that’s if you skip the dollop of sour cream!).
This soup isn’t particularly low fat but it’s super tasty.
Happy cooking! Christie x
This delicious recipe is brought to you by the lovely Christie from Fig & Cherry, our resident foodie expert on All for Women. If you’ve got a question for Christie, pop it in the comments. Otherwise, just enjoy the mouth watering recipes and helpful kitchen hints.
RECIPE
Pumpkin, chorizo and chickpea soup
serves 4
1kg Japanese pumpkin* (whole weight)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium brown onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
2 small Spanish chorizo sausages, sliced into rounds
1 litre chicken stock or water
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
sea salt and black pepper
lime and olive oil to garnish
1. Peel, de-seed and chop the pumpkin into large chunks about 3cm big.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sweat for 5 mins until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute until it is fragrant and the onion is just starting to brown at the edges.
3. Remove the pot from the heat and and leave for 1 minute. Then add the paprika and stir to combine thoroughly. It’s very important to take the pot off the heat because the paprika will taste very bitter if allowed to dry out over high heat.
4. Add the chorizo and stir to coat in the onion mixture then return to the heat with a splash of water. Cook for 2 minutes or until the chorizo begins to crisp, then add the pumpkin and stock or water. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
5. Transfer half the soup to a blender, allow to cool slightly** and then blend until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, add the chickpeas and simmer until heated through. Taste and season. Then drizzle with olive oil and serve with lime wedges
*Japanese pumpkin is also known as Kent pumpkin. Any variety of pumpkin can be substituted.
**It’s important to allow the mixture to cool slightly before whizzing in the blender because too much steam inside the jug will cause the lid to pop off and your kitchen to turn orange! Trust me, I’ve done this before and then had little spots of pumpkin soup in every nook and cranny of my kitchen. I was very unimpressed with myself!
