I always look forward to the autumn, although it baffles me why we don’t call the season ‘fall’ like we used to, many years ago ( and took the word with us to the Americas, before we stopped using it ourselves over time), it seems so more descriptive of the season.
One of the reasons autumn is such a nice time, apart from the satisfaction of finishing the harvests, and watching the surrounding countryside change from stable green, to 40 shades of gold, is: it’s pumpkin and squash season. And as the leaves change colour, so do the squashes in my kitchen veg box. I drool at the thought of hearty, earthy, thick warming soups, chocked full of fresh harvested squash. And here is my all time favourite, from Nigel Slater, who Jamie Oliver called “a genius”, and after cooking some of his recipes, you might likely agree.
I had to do some work in the field we grew our squashes, they have all been harvested weeks ago, but some lone squashes were still hiding out, and here is some of the handful i brought back that day. The orange ones are onion squash, the round stripy ones like the one bottom right, are festival squash, (these ones changed colour before my eyes in my kitchen. The long yellow squash on the left is delicata, and the perfectly round dark green one next to it is a kabocha squash:
Here is Nigel Slater’s recipe:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pumpkin_stew_with_sour_06174
And i’ll copy and paste it here, in case that link goes offline:
Ingredients
- 40g/1½oz butter
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 stick celery, chopped
- 3 sprigs rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 400g/14oz lentils
- 1.2litres/2pints 2fl oz vegetable stock
- 600g/1lb 5oz assorted pumpkin or squash (total chopped weight)
- small bunch parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp sour cream
Method
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In a large pan melt the butter and then add chopped onions, carrot and celery. Tear in the rosemary and a couple of bay leaves and after a few minutes add the chopped garlic. When all have nicely softened, tip in the lentils and pour over 1litre/1¾ pints of vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer whilst you tend to the pumpkin.
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Using a variety of pumpkins and squashes gives the stew a more complex flavour. Here I use acorn squash and Cinderella, but you want to end up with about 600g/1lb 5oz of peeled pumpkin in large chunks. Add them to the stew, season and then pour over enough water to just cover all the ingredients. Put a lid on the pan and leave to simmer for 30-40 minutes.
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When the stew is almost ready, add the chopped parsley.
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To make the stew creamier, remove a small bowlful to a food processor and blitz it with 200ml/2fl oz of stock. Pour it back in and the stew becomes instantly more velvety.
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Serve the stew in bowls, finishing each helping off with a cooling spoonful of sour cream.
Here is my ingredients. I used an onion squash, and a delicata this time. Any variety of pumpkin and squash work well, including butternut on it’s own even, but two varieties are better, and Nigel’s choice of pumpkin and acorn squash is excellent, so i suggest using these if you can get them.
After 40 minutes, i sat down to one of my favourite lentil soups, a simple masterpiece; one of my favourite things:
(i have to add, that i missed one crucial detail in the above recipe, which is to take out a small portion of the soup, liquidize in a blender, and add back to the pot, at the end of the cooking process. It really does make for a smoother textured soup. The above is a bit chunky compared to normal, and i didn’t add fresh chopped parsley till afterwards either in the above. Chunky or smooth, it still tastes delicious!)