Roasted Pumpkin Soup With Roasted Garlic - cooking recipe

Ingredients

700 g pumpkin
1 head garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion
2 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cups water
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon chile, crushed (optional)

Preparation

Cut the pumpkin into wedges and then into about 3cm cubes.
Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper in a roasting tin.
Cut the top off a head of garlic and drizzle a little oil over the cloves.
Wrap the garlic in tin foil and add to the pumpkin.
Roast at 200C for 30 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft.
Meanwhile, coarsely chop the onion, celery and carrot and fry until the onion is translucent.
Add the ground cumin and fry briefly.
Add the water, Worcestershire sauce (a couple of shakes of the bottle), salt, pepper and chili (if you like a bit of heat in your soup).
Bring to the boil and then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove the skin from the cooked pumpkin.
Squeeze out the roasted garlic and add to the soup along with the pumpkin. You may need to add some water at this stage to just cover the vegetables.
Simmer for another 5 minutes.
Blend with a stick blender and adjust the seasoning to taste.
You may also need to add yet more water if the soup is too thick. I like my soup really thick. My kids used to eat this by spreading it on their bread instead of dipping the bread in the soup!