Kürbiscremesuppe (pumpkin cream soup)

Method

1. Melt the butter in a 4 litre pot over medium heat and sweat the onion and ginger with a pinch of salt for 6 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
2. Stir in the curry powder and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
3. Add the pumpkin and broth. Bring to a simmer, then turn down until it barely bubbles.
4. Simmer about 18 minutes, until a knife slides into a chunk with no resistance. Check from 15 minutes; Hokkaido softens faster than it looks like it will.
5. Blend until completely smooth, in batches in a blender if working by hand. Hokkaido skin is edible and blends in fine, so there is no need to peel it first.
6. Stir in the cream, then season with salt and pepper.
7. Serve with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil and a scatter of toasted seeds over each bowl. This is the traditional finish and does more for the dish than any other single step.

Method in the Thermomix

Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl.

1. Ginger into the dry bowl. Chop 3 sec / speed 6. Add the onion, roughly chopped, and chop 4 sec / speed 5.
2. Add the butter. Sauté 6 min / 120 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off, until translucent.
3. Add the curry powder. Sauté 30 sec / 100 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off, until fragrant.
4. Add the pumpkin in 3 cm chunks and the broth. Cook 18 min / 100 °C / speed 1, measuring cup on.
5. Blend until silky, working up gradually to 1 min / speed 9. The skin blends in completely; there is nothing to fish out first.
6. Add the cream, salt and pepper. Mix 10 sec / speed 3. Taste through the lid and correct.
7. Serve with pumpkin seed oil and toasted seeds over each bowl.

Notes

• Do not peel the Hokkaido. Unlike most other pumpkins, its skin is thin enough to eat and blends in completely, adding both fibre and colour that peeling would throw away.
• Watch the timing near the end. Hokkaido has a narrower window between firm and falling apart than butternut squash, so start testing a few minutes before the clock says to.
• Pumpkin seed oil is the finish, not a garnish you can skip. It is nutty and slightly bitter in a way that plain oil is not, and it is what makes this taste distinctly Austrian rather than like a generic squash soup.
• It keeps for 3 days in the fridge and freezes well for up to 3 months, though the oil is always added fresh at serving, never before freezing.

Ingredient substitutions

• Hokkaido pumpkin can be butternut squash, peeled first since its skin is too tough to blend in, with an extra 5 minutes on the simmer.
• Curry powder can be swapped for a pinch of ground cinnamon and nutmeg for a more purely autumnal flavour without the curry note.
• Pumpkin seed oil has no real substitute for the flavour, but a swirl of cream and a scatter of croutons is a fine alternative finish if it is not available.
• For a vegan version, use oil instead of butter and oat cream instead of dairy cream; the pumpkin’s natural body carries the texture well either way.