It’s Halloween and I made Roasted pumpkin soup, gave it a halloween touch with caramelized cobweb…
Yesterday, I had a shopping spree at the Farmers fresh market and came back home with lots of fresh vegetables and fruits. I was excited about the cute little pumpkin I had bought and wanted to make something with it right away. Too many ideas rushed through my mind from baking to sautéing and finally I had to fall for the soup idea. Any day, any time I can have soup, in fact soup has always been my great companion.
I topped the pumpkin soup with fried mussels, made a cobweb out of caramelized sugar and placed a fried mussel over it which looked like a bug, at least to me 😛
Have a Creepy Halloween!
Roasted Pumpkin Soup Topped with Fried Mussel
Ingredients:
- Pumpkin, small-1
- Ground Pepper- 1 1/2 tsp
- Heavy Cream (optional)- 1/2 cup
- Olive oil- 2 tbsp
To make Homemade Vegetable Broth:
- Carrot, cubed- 1
- Celery, diced-2 stalks
- Onion, diced-1
- Thyme- 1 sprig
- Rosemary- 1 sprig
- Basil, dried- 1 1/2 tsp
- Water- 3 cups
- Salt- as per your needs
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- Here is the cute little pumpkin:
- Cut the pumpkin along with the skin to medium sized chunks, drizzle with olive oil and line them on a baking sheet.
- Roast the pumpkin in the oven for 20 minutes or until it gets tender and slightly golden brown.
- Take out the roasted pumpkin chunks from the oven and let it cool down.
- Peel off the skin from the chunks and keep aside.
- Heat a dutch oven or wide non-stick cooking pan, add the carrot, onion, celery, thyme, rosemary, dried basil leaves along with water, let it cook covered for 20 minutes until the veggies turn tender.
- After 20 minutes, add the roasted pumpkin into the vegetable broth along with the other veggies.
- Let it come to a boil.
- Remove the thyme and rosemary stems from the veggie broth.
- Puree the roasted pumpkin along with the veggies in batches in a blender.
- Pour the pureed pumpkin soup back into the dutch oven or pan and simmer on low heat.
- Add the ground pepper and combine well.
- Add the heavy cream, simmer for a minute and remove from the stove.
- Serve the soup in a soup bowl.
Making Fried Mussels:
Ingredients
- Mussels, cleaned- 12 no’s
- Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
- Chili powder- 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
- Salt- to taste
- Oil- enough to deep fry
Check this out: Mussel Fry
Making caramelized cobweb:
Ingredients:
- Sugar- 1 1/2 tbsp
- Water- 1/2 cup sugar
- Parchment paper greased with butter- 2 sheets
Preparation:
- Grease the parchment paper with butter and keep aside.
- Place a small non-stick pan over medium heat.
- Add the sugar and water, keep stirring until the sugar melts in the water and the syrup turns clear.
- Stop stirring, continue to cook until the syrup turns brown and has the constituency of honey.
- Place the pan into a ice-water bath to stop the cooking.
- Immediately, using a spoon drizzle the caramelized sugar syrup on to the parchment paper creating the shape of a cobweb.
- If the syrup is too watery, let it cool down to have the right consistency.
- Alternatively, if the syrup is too thick, heat the syrup for few minutes and it will loosen up.
- Let the cobweb on the parchment paper stand for a while until it sets.
- Gently, remove the caramelized cobweb from the paper, making sure not to break it.
- It may take a couple of attempts to get the cobweb shape. I know mine is not that perfect, anyway it worked.
Serving:
- Serve the roasted pumpkin soup in a soup bowl.
- Top the soup with 4 to 5 fried mussels.
- On the side you could place the caramelized cobweb on top of few button mushrooms and place a fried mussel over the cobweb, so that it looks like a bug.
Tips:
If you are a vegetarian, ignore the mussels and you have the perfect veggie soup which will refresh and soothe you.
