Creamy Pumpkin Soup

We're still on the creamy soup kick. I love cream of anything soup. Hmm, might have to get to work on a cream of cream soup.

The last time we attempted pumpkin soup we got to the blending stage and the blender decided to drop its guts and leak motor oil into the pumpkin puree. "What's this black shit?", I was heard to exclaim. And that was the last time we made pumpkin soup. This time class we're going to attempt a creamy pumpkin soup. We're not going to follow any one particular recipe although we were inspired by the recipe in French Women Don't Get Fat. Michelle helped me this time too. She was hovering around as I chopped so she may as well bloody help. I think she was hungry.

• 1kg of pumpkin (around 1kg - we used 800grams of butternut pumpkin), chopped
  
• 2 potatoes, chopped
  
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
  
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• water, enough to cover the vegies in the pot
• 1 chicken stock cube, because we're lazy
• salt and cracked pepper
  
• cream

Chop the pumpkin, potatoes and onion. Throw all the vegies into a large saucepan or pot. Be creative and try and throw the vegies in from a metre or so away (not possible with Michelle watching). Add the garlic and the bay leaf too.

If Michelle isn't supervising closely pour in some olive oil and a dab of butter. Actually for this recipe no sautéing is required so when Michelle catches you pouring in the oil you go "Oops" and try and pour the oil out of the pot. So to repeat, no oil or butter is required! Cover the vegies with fresh organic water - from the tap obviously. Personally I like the taste of chlorine. That is the sign of freshness. Obviously if you're from a country where the tap water is of more dubious quality by all means use bottled water. Crush the stock cube and sprinkle it in. Salt and pepper to taste.

Bring the mixture to the boil and then simmer for around 45 minutes. When the spuds are soggy remove from the heat and let the "soup" cool.
Strain most of the fluid, the watery stuff, off. Remove the bay leaf. Dump the vegies, the sodden mess, into a blender or food processor and hit the bzzzzz button on high. Pour the pureed mixture back into the pot and warm it through.
Serve in a bowl. Add cream to taste. Make smiley faces if that turns you on. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Eat and slurp and I defy you not to say yum. The dish washing can bloody well wait till tonight... after Battlestar Galactica and Sarah Connor and Dollhouse and Being Human and and and... we have lots of TV lined up tonight.