Pumpkin & Bacon Soup

Although most things I post on Kev’s Kitchen were either inspired by a dish I had in a restaurant or read about in a cookbook, the recipes are original. The concepts though, are rarely new and even if I think they are, they’ve probably been done before. I create the dishes here without following somebody else’s recipe, yet the framework didn’t magically appear in my tiny brain.

This recipe has been blatantly and unashamedly cribbed from Fergus Henderson’s drool-inducing book “The Whole Beast – Nose to Tail Eating“. To make it fit within the Kev’s Kitchen time and simplicity guidelines, I scaled down the quantities and took a few shortcuts in the preparation, though more than just the framework for my new favourite belongs to Mr. Henderson.

Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion – diced

1 leek – light portion finely sliced and tops discarded

3 cloves garlic – very finely chopped or crushed

8 thick slices bacon – sliced into matchsticks

2 cups chopped or diced tomatoes with their juice

8 cups pumpkin – peeled and cubed to 1”

1 tablespoon thyme – finely chopped

1 tablespoon parsley – finely chopped

8 cups chicken stock

½ teaspoon – fresh ground black pepper

½ teaspoon kosher salt

 

Preparation:

Place a large pot containing the olive oil on medium high heat. Add the onion, leek and garlic, stirring occasionally for five minutes.

Add the bacon and continue to stir occasionally for five more minutes.

Put the tomato in the pot and continue to cook for another ten minutes.

Add the pumpkin, thyme and parsley, stirring occasionally for five minutes.

Stir in the stock and turn the heat to high until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for fifteen minutes.

Stir in the pepper and taste to see if the salt is required. If you are using commercially prepared stock, it’ll likely have plenty already.

Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Get the PDF and nutrition info