To make this soup vegan, substitute the dairy cream with coconut cream and omit the Worcestershire sauce, as well as the cheese in the pesto.
Recipe and styling by Taryne Jakobi
Photograph by Dylan Swart
Smoky pumpkin chowder soup with pumpkin seed pesto and sriracha crème
Ingredients
- olive oil, to fry
- 1 large (about 250g) onion, peeled and diced
- 3 (about 150g) celery stalks, diced
- 150g leeks (white part only), sliced
- 10ml (2 tsp) smoked Spanish paprika
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
- 1½L (6 cups) good-quality chicken/vegetable stock
- 2 corn on the cobs, kernels removed
- 4 dried bay leaves
- 700g pumpkin, diced
- 30ml (2 tbsp) mixed dried herbs
- 250ml (1 cup) fresh cream/full cream milk
- 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
SRIRACHA CRÈME
- 20ml (4 tsp) sriracha/any hot sauce
- 125ml (½ cup) sour cream
PUMPKIN-SEED PESTO
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, washed
- 30ml (2 tbsp) lemon juice, fresh
- 1,25ml (¼ tsp) salt
- 45ml (3 tbsp) olive oil
- 60ml (¼ cup) dried pumpkin seeds + extra, to garnish
- 55g Parmesan
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery and leeks and cook until soft. Stir in the smoked paprika and garlic and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add the stock, corn kernels, bay leaves, pumpkin and dried herbs. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the cream or milk, taking particular care not to boil the soup or it will curdle. Add the Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and stir to combine, ensuring the mixture never boils or burns on the bottom. Cook for a further 30 minutes.
For the sriracha crème, stir the sriracha into the sour cream.
For the pesto, place all of the ingredients in a food processor and whizz to a pesto consistency.
Ladle the soup into bowls and serve garnished with a dollop each of sriracha crème and pumpkin pesto and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds.
ALSO SEE: Sweetcorn, coconut and turmeric soup with paprika-fried prawns
Sweetcorn, coconut and turmeric soup with paprika-fried prawns
Imka Webb is a freelance digital marketing expert and the digital editor of Food & Home Entertaining magazine. www.imkawebb.com
