Recipe for pumpkin, cannelini bean and tomato soup with bacon

There needs to be a rule in October and November: one must incorporate pumpkin into your meals and daily activities at least once a week. Roast seeds? Check. Carve jack-o-lantern? Check. Make soup, curry, cannelloni, and whatever else you can extract from that big and beautiful orangeness? Check.

The latest adventure with pumpkin is soup-based, but the pumpkin is roasted first. I think this is pretty important, actually – like marrow, pumpkin can be a little flavourless if not infused with the right, well, flavours.

So a little pumpkin, acidified with a few tomatoes, proteined-up with some cannellini beans, and made meaty with a few rashers of bacon, was rather nice in my opinion. (And by the way, the bacon is completely optional, should you choose to eschew it.)

Pumpkin, cannellini bean and tomato soup with bacon

(serves 3)

1 kg raw pumpkin (skin on is fine), in slices

2 tsp + 1 tsp olive oil

200 g leeks, chopped

3 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 tin of cannellini beans, drained

1 tbsp of bouillon powder mixed with 1 litre of freshly boiled water

a few stalks’ worth of fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme

4 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Add the pumpkin and 2 tsp of oil to a foil-lined roasting tin and roast for 1 hr, turning halfway through. (This can be done ahead of time if you like.)

Add the final tsp of oil to a pot, and gently fry the bacon until slightly crispy, then remove and set on a piece of kitchen roll to soak up excess oil.

Add the leeks to the pot and saute them for a few minutes, before adding the cannellini beans and thyme. Season and stir, then add the hot stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.

When the pumpkin is ready, remove the skins if they seem too tough, then chop the roasted pumpkin into bite-size cubes. Add to the pot, along with the chopped tomatoes. Season again, then allow to simmer for another 20 minutes before serving in big bowls – top with the bacon, if you want it, or you could add a dollop of crème fraiche or set yogurt. Give it a final crack of black pepper and a pinch of sea salt and you’re sorted.

I’ve found 1 serving works for me, though my husband’s stomach wants something more like 2 servings (plus bread, of course). But the protein in the beans and the carbs in the pumpkin will sustain you easily throughout the evening.

The bottom line…

One serving, without bacon: 227 cals

One serving, with bacon: 292 cals

Double serving, without bacon: 454 cals

Double serving, with bacon: 584 cals

I really like how versatile this soup is –you can easily add things at the end to make it more appealing to someone with hungry eyes (and stomach). The only thing I’d do differently next time is chop the pumpkin into smaller pieces (given feedback from the husband). But despite this, he left not a drop of his double serving with bacon …