Living Local, Living Yoga Recipe - The Best Pumpkin Ginger Curry Soup!

This simple, vegan, nourishing recipe got rave reviews recently!  We'd love to share it with you all.  Such a wonderful way to honour all those pumpkins offering themselves up in the Fall.  At 'Niwas we had a "volunteer" pumpkin plant pop up in Devi's garden that produced FOURTEEN decent pumpkins this year.  Wow, talk about abundance!

This recipe can be adapted as a "Living Local" recipe if you substitute coconut oil/milk for local butter and milk.  You can also skip the ginger or simply use dried ginger or other spice alternative. 

Try this recipe out and let us know what you think.  This soup freezes really well also so don't hesitate in making a large batch.

Ingredients for Vegan Alternative version:

• approx. 1 kilogram pumpkin – Any variety will do, we used the volunteer pumpkins from Devi's garden which seemed to be pie pumpkins.  You can also use other squash to substitute or support this soup.
• 1 onion
• 2-3 stalks celery
• 500 mL vegetable stock
• 1 can coconut milk or cream
• About 3-4 thumb sized pieces of ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp curry
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg or allspice
• Coconut oil for roasting the pumpkin and sautéing the onions/celery
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and line a large tray with parchment paper (or use a non-stick tray). 
2. Place chunks of pumpkin on tray, place coconut oil on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast pumpkin in the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until super soft and starting to caramelize at the edges.  You can also roast the seeds with some oil, salt and pepper to top the soup with later!
3. While the pumpkin is roasting, peel the ginger, finely chop the onion, chop the celery and gather the rest of the ingredients.
4. Sauté the onion and celery in coconut oil, as soon as onions begin to look translucent, add the ginger. Place cooked pumpkin, stock, coconut milk, cumin, curry, nutmeg and cinnamon into pot and cook another 5-10 minutes together. 
5. Use a hand blender to blend the soup (or a blender).  Blend until super smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
6. To serve, heat a portion of the soup in a saucepan over the stove.  Garnish with parsley and roasted pumpkin seeds.  You are always welcome to throw in a dollop of sour cream or coconut cream afterwards also!​ ​