I am really proud of my next recipe. It turned out amazing. Great taste and beautiful looks; a food poetry. Since I tried to make different dishes using a pumpkin, I also made a soup. But this is not just a normal pumpkin soup. It is a lot more than a traditional soup. You have to make this pumpkin noodle soup so that you will believe me how amazing it is. This recipe is super easy and the opposite of being boring. It has ginger, pumpkin, mint, coconut and of course noodles. And in addition, there are some secret ingredients which will add a crunch to the dish.
Ingredients for 4 portions of pumpkin noodle soup:
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 spring onion
- 1 chili
- a piece of ginger (2-3 cm)
- 1 Tbsp of sesame oil
- 500-700 ml of vegetable broth
- ½ of a Hokkaido pumpkin or any other (cubes)
- 200 g noodles (ramen/rice)
- 2 Tbsp of soy sauce
- 200 ml of coconut milk (the creamier the better)
- a small head of broccoli
- a handful of mint and cilantro (I put 50:50)
- ½ pomegranate
- 1 Tbsp of olive oil
- 5-6 Tbsp of chickpeas (cooked)
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- 1 tsp of honey
- salt and pepper
First, prepare a deep pot for the soup. Clean, peel and chop the garlic, spring onion, chili (you can leave or remove the seeds) and ginger. Next, cut the pumpkin head in half (you can keep the other half in the fridge covered with some foil for the next recipe you’ll make) and scrape out all the fibres and seeds. Furthermore, wash it under warm running water and cut it into cubes (3-4 cm) leaving the skin on. But if you prefer without, you can also peel it off.
Once everything is prepared, turn on the heat, place the pot on the stove, add the sesame oil, garlic, ginger, chili and green onion and cook for 1 minute. Keep stirring and don’t let the garlic burn. Add the pumpkin cubes, give it a quick stir and cover with half a litre of hot vegetable broth. Bring it to boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, cut the broccoli head into small florets. In case the florets are too big, cut them in half. Cut the pomegranate in half and remove the seeds placing them in a small bowl. Prepare an immersion blender, a small baking pan and a piece of baking paper.
Next, preheat the oven to 200ºC. In a small bowl combine olive oil, cinnamon, honey, salt and pepper and stir well. Add the chickpeas and keep stirring so that all chickpeas are evenly covered. Cover the baking pan with baking paper and put in the chickpeas together with all the mixture. Bake for ca 20 minutes (after 10 min stir them around) or until the chickpeas get the crunchy look. Then remove them from the oven.
By now the pumpkin should be tender, so remove the pot from the stove and using an immersion blender blend it for a minute. Since you want some small pumpkin chunks in the soup, try to blend only half of it. Put the pot back on the stove (medium heat), stir in the soy sauce, coconut milk and add the noodles. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
When the noodles are halfway done, add the broccoli florets to the pot, cover and cook for 5 more minutes. Once the broccoli is tender, remove the pot from the stove, chop the cilantro and mint (save some small leaves for garnishing) and add to the pot. Finally, prepare the deep plates.
Ladle the golden pumpkin noodle soup into the plates. And don’t forget to also “catch” some noodles. At the end top the soup with some crunchy chickpeas and a spoonful of pomegranate seeds. Last but not least garnish everything with a couple of mint leaves.
Enjoy!
