Recipe: pumpkin soup with brown butter and hazelnut

Pumpkin soup appears on countless autumn menus. A few clever additions turn it into a soup guests will remember. This recipe is scaled for twenty 250 ml portions.

Ingredients

3 kg butternut squash or red kuri, 400 g onion, 60 g ginger, 2.5 litres vegetable stock, 500 ml cream, 200 g butter, 150 g roasted hazelnuts, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.

Method

Roast the diced squash at 200 °C for 25 minutes, which gives more depth than boiling. Sweat onion and ginger until translucent, add squash and stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend until smooth, add the cream and season.

Heat the butter until nutty and brown and stir in the roughly chopped hazelnuts. When serving, spoon some brown butter over each bowl. The soup keeps for up to three days chilled; the butter is best made à la minute.

Cost tip: roast the pumpkin seeds with salt and paprika and you have a free bar snack.✦