Winter means soup. Lots of root vegetables are in abundance and you pretty much want to fill your body with heat at this time of the year, and soup goes well with both those things. This soup uses sweet potato, pumpkin, fragrant spices and a little coconut to warm and nourish you from the inside out.

Soup is also an excellent way to get a few servings of vegetables in one meal and it can really pack a punch when it comes to flavour.

Tips to reduce your food waste:

1. When preparing the pumpkin you can reserve the seeds and toast these in the oven and use as your garnish.

2. You can also reserve the potato skins toss with a little oil and roast until crispy and just munch on these as a delicious pre soup snack.

3. If you’re not serving all the soup immediately and you’re planning on having this for lunches: Pour soup into individual containers place 2 in your fridge and the rest in your freezer. If you have it too many days in a row you’ll get bored so why not have some in the freezer instead for when you’re a little less organised (most of the time if you’re me). You can put the garnish into a separate container and just take what you need per serve – or skip the garnish if you can’t be bothered!

Ingredients

600g pumpkin

500g sweet potato

1 Tbs coconut oil

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cinamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 clove garlic

4 cardamon pods

2 cloves

1 teaspoon fenugreek

1 inch piece of ginger

1 birdseye chilli

2 coriander roots

1 litre vegetable (or chicken) stock

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Garnish

handful coriander

1/4 cup coconut flakes (toasted in a pan)

3 Tbs pumpkin seeds (optional to toast)

1/2 cup coconut cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a large baking tray in baking paper. Peel sweet potato and pumpkin then cut into approximately 3cm chunks. Place on the tray in a single layer, sprinkle with cinnamon, cumin and nutmeg, dot around 1/2 Tbs of coconut oil and place 1 large clove of garlic in the centre of the tray. Roast for 35-45 minutes or until soft and starting to colour.

Meanwhile melt 1/2 a Tbs of coconut oil in a medium pot (that will hold a couple of litres of soup) and on medium high heat toast the cardamon pods, cloves and fenugreek until fragrant (a couple of minutes). Remove from pot and grind these as finely as possible in a mortar and pestle (or process in a spice grinder or mini food processor) along with the ginger, chilli, and coriander root.

If using a stick blender you can do the following in your pot, otherwise do as follows to avoid a soup all over the kitchen blender accident (and benefit from my past kitchen hiccups!). Place 1/2 the roasted veg in a blender and add the spice paste and half the stock. Blend on high until smooth. Then repeat with other half of stock and vegetables. Add water if the blender gets stuck. Pour into a pot and add water to achieve the desired consistency, I would usually add anywhere between  1-2 cups of water. On low heat bring the soup to a simmer, season and add orange zest, continue to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

To serve: Add a tablespoon of coconut cream to each bowl and swirl, top with coriander, coconut and pumpkin seeds.

HH. x