Vegan Christmas - Pumpkin Soup

Christmas is my favourite festival! Since people often think that vegans are difficult to blend in Christmas parties or have their own feast, me and my forever dream teammate Karen decided to get together and whip up a PLANT-BASED CHRISTMAS FEAST!

We are both already super excited about it during the planning stage. All the dishes in this feast are seasonal vegetables with lots of spices to warm up your body during the winter days. Hence, this should not be confined to Christmas only. You can enjoy it literally every day! 💃🏻I will be posting the recipes of the individual dishes in the coming days. For your convenience, there will be a link provided to a downloadable PDF file of the recipe card I made, so you can print them out and refer to it while cooking (without making your phone dirty 😏). The first recipe is my favourite one – Pumpkin & Thyme Soup!

This soup contains lots of spices, such as cinnamon and nutmeg. The red chili also gives you a subtle kick. You can also roast the pumpkin seeds and place it on top or blend into the soup too! Be creative and add anything you like. Cooking is so much fun because it is always changing and there is no definite formula for it.

Special thanks Karen’s mom for this super easy yet hearty and delicious recipe. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. It goes well with bread and we paired it with my homemade vegan & gluten-free bread (recipe here).

Here are some photos of the super rich and creamy pumpkin soup featuring our cheeky little helper on that day – Buster the poodle! ☺️

Ingredients:

Soup:

½ pumpkin, seeds scooped out and cut into wedges

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Handful fresh thyme (plus a few extra sprigs to garnish)

2 shallots, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup organic vegetable stock ½ cup coconut milk (plus a little extra to garnish)

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 fresh red chili

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Dukkah:

2/3 cup hazelnuts

½ cup sesame seeds

2 Tbsp coriander seeds

2 Tbsp cumin seeds

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

Directions:

Soup

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place pumpkin wedges into an oven tray cover with olive oil and fresh thyme .
Bake pumpkin for approximately 30 minutes until soft then remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes
Once cooled put the pumpkin (including the thyme) into a high powered blender or food processor and puree.
In a large saucepan over medium heat add 1 TBSP coconut oil, shallots and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until translucent.
Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer for approximately 5 mintues.
Garnish with coconut milk, thyme and dukkah

Dukkah

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Spread the hazelnuts in a baking tray and bake for 3-4 minutes keeping an eye they don’t burn. Rub the hazelnuts between a clean tea towel to remove the skin.
Roughly chop the hazelnuts and transfer to a bowl
Heat a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Add to the bowl with the hazelnuts.
Place coriander seeds and cumin seeds in frying pan over medium heat, and cook, stirring frequently, for 1-2 minutes until seeds begin to pop. Remove from pan and using a mortar and pestle and crush the seeds. Add the crushed spices, salt and pepper to the hazelnut and sesame seeds and mix well.

Download the printable recipe in PDF file here

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