Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

• 1 kg butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 L chicken stock
• 100 ml cream
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Crusty bread, to serve
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Soften the onion in the oil for 6–8 minutes without colouring it, then add the garlic for a minute.
2. Pumpkin and stock in. Bring it up, then simmer 20 minutes until the pumpkin gives way completely to a spoon.
3. Blend it smooth. A stick blender in the pot is easiest; a jug blender wants the soup cooled a bit first and the lid held down.
4. Stir in most of the cream and season. It'll want more salt than seems reasonable — pumpkin is sweet and salt is what stops it tasting like dessert.
5. The rest of the cream swirled on top, with bread.