Indian Spiced Root Vegetable and Winter Squash Soup

Hi guys, so autumn is officially hear, move over summer its time for some serious comfort food.
When I think of October I think of pumpkins and root vegetables, so I thought why not start the month off with a really easy but super tasty soup including both of these things.

So let me explain a bit more about the root vegetable thing, here in the UK pumpkins were not a big deal in the super markets when I was growing up so a lot of the time I would carve a swede and carry it with a candle in as a lantern on Halloween eve whilst trick or treating. Ever since I have associated swede with Halloween and autumn in general.

That being said, when I was thinking of a great hearty soup to make I thought of swede straight away, then I thought pumpkin and lastly I thought about carrots, mainly due to the colour. That's basically how this recipe started life, all the things I associate with autumn together in a soup. Now to the Indian spiced part, well all of the before mentioned vegetables/pulses don't really have strong flavour and I wanted my soup to be warming and packed with flavour so I instantly went to Indian spices for my inspiration. black mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric and cinnamon form the base of this wonderful flavour packed dish.

so lets get down to business.

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin/winter squash, diced
1 tbsp. oil
1/2 swede, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. black mustard seeds
1 tbsp. garlic powder
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp turmeric
500 ml veggie stock

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan, then add the mustard seeds, onions, carrots and swede and cook for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. add the ginger and garlic and stir for 1 minute.
3. add the spices and stir until all the vegetables are coated then add in the pumpkin/squash and lentils then stir again.
4. pour in the veggie stock and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cover with a lid.
5. after around 10 minutes check and more water if needed.
6. after another 10 minutes add the coconut milk, stir and check for seasoning, simmer for 5 minutes.
7. remove from the heat, let cool and blend until smooth.
8. serve with rustic crusty bread

Notes

• if you don't like swede you can totally leave it out.
• you can swap out the pumpkin for any kind of squash, such as butternut squash which is more readily available in the super markets.