This Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Soup is a hearty, filling soup to keep you going on a cold day. I just love a steaming hot bowl of sweet pumpkin soup. However, most of the pumpkin soups I have had this year were a bit bland. Now I love the depth of Indian flavors so I decided to inject my Pumpkin Soup with Indian spices such as ginger, cumin and coriander. This soup comes close to a spicy, aromatic Indian Dahl. It has a lots of healthy fresh ginger in it. Ginger warms the body, it boosts the immune system and has strong anti-inflammatory properties and is a powerful natural painkiller.

Ingredients

• 3 cups/1 small sugar pumpkin, peeled and cut into cubes
• 3 onions, peeled and quartered
• 2 large carrots, sliced
• 2 large garlic cloves, whole and peeled
• 2 small dried chillies
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in pieces
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander, ground
• 4 tsp fresh ginger root
• ¼ tsp himalaya salt
• 1 can (400 gr) tinned yellow lentils, rinsed with water
• 3 cups gluten-free tomato vegetable stock
• fresh coriander

Instructions 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 celsius and place the pumpkin cubes, onion, garlic and cinammon in a roasting tray. Rub the pumpkin, onion and garlic with the oil, dried chillies and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. Cover with alu foil and bake for 15 minutes.

3. Take off alu foil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly caramelised.

4. Take out the broken pieces of cinnamon.

5. In a large saucepan, heat oil and cook cumin for about 1 minute. Add the roasted pumpkin, onion and garlic and add the turmeric. Cook for another minute, then add the ginger and ground coriander. Stir well.

6. Add vegetable stock, cover and boil for 10-15 minutes.

7. Add lentils.

8. When cooled down, add ingredients to a blender and pulse until smooth.

9. Serve with fresh cilantro.