I might have mentioned before, that pumpkins and winter squashes never have been part of my diet until I became vegan. I don’t remember exactly what my weird excuses for not eating pumpkin were. It had something to do with it’s orange colour and with the fact that this was a vegetable, which some people would put into a cake. I thought pumpkins were really sweet and that I couldn’t put anything sweet (sweet as in sugar sweet) into my soup. I don’t need to go into detail here, you get what I mean by “weird”. Meanwhile I found out that pumpkins not only taste good. They are super healthy as well. According to this website, pumpkins and other winter squashes are full of vitamin A and C, potassium, fibre, manganese, folate, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1, copper, vitamin B6, niacin,pantothenic acid, and not to forget vitamin E.
Since I know this I want to eat pumpkin all day. Here it is in my soup:
Roasted Pumpkin and Parsnip Soup
600 g pumpkin, chopped
400 g parsnips, chopped
170 g (2/3 cup) red lentils
one large sweet red pepper
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp. panch poran (equal parts of cumin, fenugreek, fennel, mustard and black onion seeds)
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
one medium onion, diced
1 Tbsp. ginger root, chopped
4 cups water
4 cups vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
black onion seeds and parsley leaves for serving
Place pumpkin slices, parsnip pieces, and pepper halves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast at 200°C /400°F for 45 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. (The peppers and parsnips won’t take as long as the pumpkin. You can remove them after 20-30 minutes.)
In a large pot, heat the oil, cook the spices for two minutes, stirring constantly, add onion and ginger, cook for two more minutes.
Add four cups of water and lentils, cook for 10-15 minutes until lentils are soft. Add roasted vegetables and cook for ten more minutes, purée with a hand held blender, decorate with black fennel seed and parsley leaves, and serve immediately.
I love pumpkin soup, but I’ve never made it myself. This recipe makes me want to make it as soon as possible! I didn’t know pumpkins are that healthy – well, I probably could have known, but never thought about it. Thanks for mentioning that!
Pumpkin, parsnip and lentils… mmm, I think I’m going to try to get my hands on those in the coming days.
This sounds really good… I rarely pick up parsnips at the grocery store, but I think that now I have a very good reason to do so!
Yum, anything with parsnips and I’m sold!
I actually am going to try freezing some of the “meatloaf” next time I make it because it makes around 8-9 slices, which is too much for just me to eat. So I will let you know if it freezes well… I think it probably should.
I think parsnips don’t get the respect they deserve! I’ve made a soup with parsnips, pears, and carrots, which is really tasty.
Oh I love pumpkin too!! I always thought it was tough to cook, I think the size of it scared me. But now I love it. Your soup sounds mighty tasty.
I never ate pumpkins or parsnips until I went vegan! so funny. Great recipe, I’m always looking for more uses for panch phoran!
Your soup looked soooo good that I just had to try it (it also helped me use up my parsnips!)
Only trouble was that I didn’t have any panch phoran. It was SO yummy though.
You can check it out here
Thanks for a wonderful recipe
[...] Roasted Pumpkin & Parsnip Soup [...]