Pumpkin soup

In Czech republic where I live is now winter season. So about +5 to -15 celsius degrees. In this weather I like to cook something warm. The best thing for warming up is soup! Nice hot soup will warm your body. So I present you my recipe for pumpkin soup. I use Hokkaido pumpkin cos its best for the soup. It has richer flavor and you don't have to peel it.

This will be our result:

list of ingredients

• One small Hokkaido pumpkin (500g)
• Beef broth (600ml)
• Cooking cream (150-200ml)
• Sour cream, parsley and some pumpkin seeds (on top of soup as decoration)
• Butter (around 70g) and little bit of oil
• 1 smaller onion
• Salt and pepper
• Chilli pepper (if you like)
• Grated nutmeg (just a little bit)
• 2 cloves of garlic (to make pressed garlic)
• Bay leaf

cooking process

1) Put the small chopped onion into higher pot. Add butter and little bit of oil (to not over burn the butter). Now we will fry this onion until its looking "glassy". So not fry till brown.

2) Clean the Hokkaido Pumpkin, cut it into cubes and put into the pot along with onion. We fry pumpkin from both sides (around 5 minutes).

3) Pour the beef broth (just put some beef into water and boil for 30-45 minutes, then remove the meet or use broth in cubes from store), add bay leaf, salt and cook until the pumpkin is soft.

4) Now we liquidize the pumpkin using mixer (first remove the bay leaf :-) Add pressed garlic and cooking cream, grated nutmeg (just a little bit its highly aromatic), pepper and add a pinch of chili pepper (if you like). We'll boil for a while (around 5 minutes).

5) Serve with sour cream, decorated with pumpkin seeds and parsley. We can also add croutons.

Tip: You can also use pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin you use for the soup! Just clean them and make them dry. Then put it on the pan with oil and fry until they are little bit brown. Clean them from oil and you can use them on top of the soup. No need to buy from store :-)

Bon appétit!