An easy and delicious Roast Pumpkin Soup with sweet potato, and lightly scented with cinnamon. Roasting the vegetables first gives the soup more depth and flavour. I recommend making a double batch!
The following recipe for Roast Pumpkin Soup with sweet potato is inspired by one from Nigella Christmas, a book which is always a great source of comfort and inspiration to me at this time of the year. Nigella Christmas is a colourful and calorie-filled collection of recipes which are ideal at Christmas, but also for parties and entertaining in general.
A stunning Pumpkin Bundt Cake made with homemade pumpkin purée, and drizzled with an orange glaze.
Pumpkin Patch
On a recent visit to the Jucker Farm, a pumpkin patch just outside of Zurich, I treated myself to a slice of their famous pumpkin cake which was topped with lemon icing and pistachios.
These Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Pecans & Chocolate are a delicious autumnal treat.
One sure sign that autumn has arrived in Europe is the welcoming array of pumpkins and squashes at the farmers’ market. That and the fact that ballet flats are not the best choice of shoes anymore, now that the temperatures have taken a sudden dip.
I have long been a fan of Nigel Slater, his books having been instrumental in my initial forays into the kitchen, along with Nigella Lawson and, dare I say it, the Australian Women’s Weekly. One of my favourite cookbooks would have to be Appetite, a hefty book filled with amazingly delicious recipes but provided in a manner that encourages the cook to develop some intuition in the kitchen. Rather than call for, say, 100 g of tomatoes, Nigel Slater’s recipes would instead ask for 3-4 medium-sized tomatoes, not only making it a bit easier to shop but also allowing the cook some flexibility.
I have been distracted in recent years by cookbooks from other authors, but this year hopefully marks a revisit of some old favourites. I was only reminded of Nigel Slater recently when hubby and I were browsing in the bookshop and Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1 & 2 were being sold together in a limited edition boxed set. Having lusted after these books for some time but trying to sensibly refrain from hoarding too many cookbooks in one year, I couldn’t resist a boxed set. And upon realising that Volume 1 was all about vegetables, and Volume 2 was dedicated to fruit, hubby generously offered the books to me as a gift, on the condition that they supported his New Year’s resolutions to eat more vegetarian and healthy food. Of course, honey …
With pumpkins in season, I was instantly taken by Nigel’s recipe for pumpkin laksa in Tender Volume 1. As a lover of all noodle soups, from the robust and herbal hit of a Vietnamese Pho to the equally comforting but milder-flavoured chicken noodle soup of the western palate, and not to mention the 2-minute noodles (or pot noodles) of my student days, I can rarely turn down a recipe for comfort in a bowl.
