$5 Friday: Pumpkin korma soup

It’s so green and lush this spring! In contrast to the drought of previous years, it’s so lovely to see so many flowers blooming and the trees thick with new leaves. It’s a great time to be eating salad – and also the last of winter warming dishes before summer.

Before we totally move onto summer food, there are a few cooler days (still) that are perfect for comfort food. This year, it is forecast to rain – a lot – and it’s already started. Just last night there was a big thunder storm. So it’s a great time for soups, usually a winter staple.

There are many things to love about soups. They are warming, and filling, a dieter’s friend and also fabulously frugal. Like this soup, which is super easy: the super soup. This is made from a vegetable stock using leftover scraps, which is a great way to reduce food waste and improve our nutrition. It’s so much nicer than an instant stock cube!

Ingredients

A bag of vegetable scraps (I keep mine in the freezer until I need to use them)
1/3 a medium-sized leek or one onion
A splash of olive oil
1/4 Kent pumpkin
1 medium-sized zucchini
1/2 cup (100g) split yellow peas
2 dessertspoons korma paste
Salt and pepper

Method

1. Place the vegetable scraps into a saucepan and cover with around 2 litres of water. Boil for half an hour to one hour. (I like to make mine in my Taiwanese electric Ta Tung cooker – basically, I set to steam and forget. A pressure cooker would also work well for this.)
2. Strain the liquid to use in the soup, and compost the remaining scraps.
3. Cut the Kent pumpkin into cubes. There is no need to peel as the skin is also edible. Drizzle with olive oil and bake. (Note: I’ll often do this a day or two before when I am using the oven for something else such as baking bread.)
4. In a large heavy saucepan, add a splash of olive oil and fry the chopped leek rings. Add the zucchini, and fry both until they are starting to brown. I like a bit of that caramel flavour in my soup, but obviously, it’s important not to burn it.
5. Add the korma paste and fry for a further minute, then add the split peas and the pumpkin. Cover with the split peas and cook for an hour until the split peas are mushy. (Note: a pressure cooker will reduce the cooking time.)
6. Prior to serving, blitz with a stick blender. Serve with dollops of yoghurt and bread.

Cost

Leek or onion	$1.00
Kent pumpkin, 1/4	$1.60
Zucchini	$1.18
Split yellow peas – 100g	$0.34
Korma paste	$0.50
Total:	$4.62