yummy pumpkin soup!

I made a great pumpkin soup yesterday... if i do say so myself! As usual i half followed a recipe and half made it up how i wanted it to be :P this is how i did it, but feel free to use whatever you have laying around!

Ingredients
- 1kg pumpkin, chopped into smallish cubes
- oil for cooking
- 2 small onions, chopped finely
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- curry powder (i free-poured but it would have been about 1/2 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon)
- turmeric powder (again i free-poured - about the same amount as the curry powder)
- half a red chili, seeded and chopped finely
- 1 juicy red tomato, chopped
- 500 - 750mL vegie stock
- 1/4 cup char grilled capsicum
- 1 can of beans (cannelini would be best, but i only had 4-bean mix)
- salt and pepper


METHOD
Prepare the char grilled capsicum (i already had some left over) by blackening the skins, then cool it off in a bowl covered in glad wrap. Give it a few mins, then peel the skins off under running water. (enviro tip #143: run the water into a bowl then tip it on the garden)

Heat oil in a pot, add onion, garlic, curry powder and turmeric powder. Cook gently for a few mins until the onion is translucent then add the pumpkin, and stir to coat in the onion mixture. Cook for about 5 mins, then add the stock. Get it to a simmer and add the capsicum, chili, tomato and beans. Let it bubble away until the pumpkin starts to "melt" and you have a thick orangey stew.

Transfer in batches to a food processor and whizz until it is smooth. Return all the liquid to the pot and heat gently. Give it a taste to see if you need to add anything to get it to your liking. At this point i was wondering if i needed to add a cream or coconut milk... but when i tasted it, i decided it was perfect! It is very thick and rich and pumkiny with a few hints of other flavours for good measure. This is probably my favourite punkin soup i have ever made :D

Enjoy!