Recipes

Pumpkin/squash soup

Autumn is here!  Orange, yellow and red leaves, squirrels going crazy for chestnuts and home made pumpkin soup!

 

This year I grew a squash in my vegetable garden and since Halloween is on our door step, there is no better way to celebrate my harvest than with home made soup.

 

Soups can be rich in fat and complex, and we have enough of that type of food come Christmas so I made a light simple soup that you can enjoy over the Halloween weekend that will top up your beta carotene levels!

 

Nothing but the nice smell of sweet squash.  Why don’t you give it a go this weekend? 🙂  Here’s how you do it:

 

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Ingredients

About 800g of medium cubes of orange fleshed pumpkin or squash

1 medium white onion finely chopped

2 garlic cloves crushed

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

Boiling water to cover

Good pinch of nutmeg

 

How you make it:

Put a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the oil.  Put in the onion and garlic and stir for 5 minutes until soft and starting to turn golden.  Next add the pumpkin/squash and stir. Next add the stock powder, then just cover the vegetables (the pumpkin releases fluid) with boiling water.  Bring to the boil, then turn right now to a simmer.  Cover the lid until the pumpkin/squash is  soft.  Should take about 15-20 minutes.  Stir well, add the nutmeg and take of the heat to cool.  When cooled, pour into a blender and blitz for a few seconds.  Serve with toasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top.

 

Pumpkin soup

 

Beta Carotene:

I’d like you to take a few minutes to appreciate the value of the colour orange in pumpkins and squash. This orange colour is due to beta carotene which is a pigment that makes pumpkin and squash orange.

 

Beta carotene has antioxidant activity.  It works for you, inside your body, in your cells.  It works in your defence to protect and regenerate your cells including your immune cells.

 

It’s deserving of gratitude and respect as it’s pretty powerful in it’s disease prevention ability 🙂

 

Your action:

-make some room on your shopping list this weekend to get a squash or a pumpkin (make sure you get a nice pumpkin for eating rather than a carving pumpkin as carving ones are not grown for their taste!)

-Give this soup a go, it’s perfect for light lunch or snack in a cup.  Make it regularly over the winter.  Your body will thank you for it! 🙂

Do you pumpkin and squash regularly?

 

Leave a comment below and tell me what you think of this soup and how you got on making it.

With love,

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p.s Share this post with your friends, I’d love them to have more beta carotene too!

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