It has been a while since I have showed you what cooking has been going on over here. So let us just change that and have a glimpse into this wonderful pot of soup!
Since Peter and I usually eat a homemade dinner together when we see each other, I have many occasions to cook for two now, and have started to make dishes with several servings more often – before I only did that when I cooked in advance for myself, to save time. Also, I have observed that my evening cooking has become more elaborate and usually involves a couple of dishes prepared in several pans and pots, while I used to just throw everything into a single pan when I was still on my own. It is funny how I am motivated to put more effort into cooking since it is not just for myself anymore. Cooking and sharing homemade dinners has become a dearly celebrated ritual which I heart a lot.
Although it happens that Peter and I just grab a pan each and throw our individual stuff into it, we actually like better to have a preferably large overlap in what we eat for dinner. However, our diverging food allergies limit this overlap to vegetables and legumes mostly. Sounds saddening? Well, not when such intersection dishes look like this yummy carrot and pumpkin soup! Tammy kindly encouraged me to share the recipe when I mentioned it in my reply to her wonderful pumpkin and cilantro cream soup recipe.
HERBED PUMPKIN AND CARROT SOUP
4-6 servings – vegan / paleo / gluten-free / soy-free
Ingredients
- butter or oil
- 1 tsp fresh gingerroot, peeled and finely chopped
- 500 g (1 lb) winter squash (I used kuri squash), seeds removed and cut into pieces
- 500 g (1 lb) carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
- 1000 ml (4 cups) water
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp dried chives
- 1 tsp dried tarragon
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried lovage
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Directions
Heat fat in a large pot. Add the ginger and roast until fragrant, then add pumpkin and carrots. Roast the veggies a little while stirring. Add the water, put the lid on, and heat until the water is boiling, then cook at reduced heat for about 20 minutes. Add the spices and herbs and let the soup cook for another couple of minutes. Blend the soup using a hand blender, or portion-wise in a big blender, then serve and enjoy.
This soup has a wonderfully sweet taste coming from the vegetables. I like to pour it over a bowl of chopped fresh tomatoes and roasted fish or legumes, like a kind of sauce, but it also tastes good on its own. Leftovers will stay fresh for a couple of days when put into an airtight container and kept refridgerated.
Do you have a dinner ritual? Are there any dishes you particularly like to make for your partner or friends and yourself?
This looks lovely and full of flavour. I love how soup is great by itself but also can double up as a sauce – I made pumpkin soup recently and we had it with brown rice. I also sometimes add leftover soup to stews that I am making
Yes yes, that’s exactly what I love about soups as well! They never get boring because you can vary them by just adding very few other things. Actually I feel like setting up a soup tomorrow again.
This is restaurant quality soup! Sometimes I can’t see myself paying $8 US for a bowl of squash soup that I could make it at home and get to control the salt level. I always, always have a plate of stir-fry greens for dinner. I can do salad for lunch, but in the evening, I need cooked foods.
Haha, thank you, Kim! For my tastebuds definitely, as I often find restaurant soups too salty (!!) and heavy. Stir-fry greens sound lovely, spinach and broccoli are my favorite veggies for those … It’s too bad that it’s so hard to get cool things like pak choi etc here, or they are very expensive.
Kath, I love reading your blog postings even more now! Love that you and Peter enjoy time together over a lovingly prepared meal… I am a person who truly believe in sitting down for dinner with loved ones, doesn’t always have to be home made, but sharing a meal and sharing our day is important in mu family.
The soup looks wonderful! Yum!
I’m happy you enjoy my posts, Jeno! And I agree – sitting down for a meal is a wonderful occasion to share time and speak about the day. Dinner with Peter has already become such a beloved ritual, when I eat alone it already seems bland to me now.
Mmm! I want to dig my spoon into something like this. especially when it is still cold here.
Lucky Peter
Hihihi, I wish I could send you a bowl of it! Have you tried making soup yourself? It’s not difficult and soooooo good!
Or probably your boyfriend could make some? 
Looks yummy, I’m a total pumpkin addict, thanks I’ll try that! My partner died a few years ago. I live with my two dogs, good to know can freeze some of it, sounds like it makes lots! lol
Oh Ziggy, I’m so sorry! It must be terrible to lose your partner! I don’t even want to think about how it must feel!
If you cook just for yourself, you can simply cut the ingredients by half so you don’t have to fave a ton of pumpkin soup.
Yeah, theres nothing better than a pot of soup to share with your loved ones. Works also well with oven-baked dishes…this being said, I’m off to prepare a mushroom lasagna for me and my husband ( :
lots of love, maria
Sounds yummy, Maria! Are you a vegetarian? I’m asking because I have only read about plant food on your blog so far.
Lasagna unfortunately is a no-go for me, as it contains both gluten and dairy. I think it should be possible to make an oven dish that works for both Peter and me. Probably something with legumes or brown rice or so. I’m not overly experienced with oven dishes because I usually can’t eat them, but I’ve made oven-roasted vegetables a couple of time and like that very much because the veggies get such a peculiar and yummy texture when you roast them. (Haha, now I totally get into the mood of oven-roasting something soon! I haven’t for a while, lalala … Why not, Kath???
)
Thanks for the shout out Kath. You reminded me that I have two lovely little pumpkins sitting here just waiting for love and roasting.
Ooooohhhhh …
(I have a large butternut here, from last Saturday’s market. I think I’ll make something with it soon!)
Kath, I like how you include photos, recipe and a nice story about your food, all in one post. What a delicious looking soup!
My husband and I are like you and Peter in that we have difference in what we like to eat and some areas of overlap. I enjoy making meals where both the differences and the overlaps are addressed. It is more work but our harmony is worth it.
Our ritual is that we eat together when we are both home. We sit down to the meal at the table and turn the computer away, and sometimes we have a few minutes of silent eating to get relaxed and remember to savor the food and be tuned in to our bodies. Of course that doesn’t all happen every meal but it is becoming more frequent.
Favorite dishes that I make for others?…..Gosh there are lots but they change with the seasons and over time. My husband and I made a little cook booklet a few years ago of crowd pleasers – recipes for dishes that I’ve found many people enjoy regardless of eating style. I’ll dig around and see if I still have any extra copies and send it to you.
Blessings to you both!
Aww, thank you so much, Gel! For your kind words about my post and for wanting to send me your recipe booklet! That would be awesome and makes me feel really honored! And of course I’d love to learn more about what you like to cook and eat, oooooohhh I’m already excited!
I love how the two of you like to celebrate your shared meals as a kind of mindfulness ritual! Peter and I do the same over here – no computer, no music, just two bowls of food with forks and some tea by the side. We both have a habit to sit funnily – knotted, you could call it, with one leg tucked up and halfway sitting on the other one – so bowls are perfect for both of us because you can easily hold them and don’t have to balance them like you would have to with plates.
Also, I very much like what you wrote about regarding for both shared and individual preferences with meals, and that it’s worth the effort. It just woke the association that this holds for a relationship as a whole: that it’s important to share things but also that there is enough space for both partners to get to pursue their peculiar interests. Okay, this is trivial probably, but it always makes me happy when I find how the same priniciple manifests in different respects.
I love this recipe, it sounds delicious, healthy and easy to make. With winter still to come in Australia I know I’ll be making it a lot – and have saved the recipe! I love reading your recipes – I used to pore over food books/magazins etc (didn’t have internet back then) when I was going through the most restrictive phrases, and now food publications often bore me – but never yours. Your posts start me imagining the tastes and textures, the herbs and spices, and mentally picturing the ingredients I would need.
Making food for others is something I have still to do. I’ve made food for others in the past as a volunteer in a homeless kitchen – but that’s different. That is putting together as much food and making ‘something edible’ out of whatever donations you have – winging it, and it can be stressful and heavy work. But I enjoyed it, especially the serving. Smiles
Cooking for people I love is something I really want to do. I cooked as a kid but it was a chore, following instructions, and somehow I cooked so many meals for the family and retained no knowledge of how to actually *cook*, apart from the basics. There was no real love in it – only duty. Cooking with love would be so much different. Can’t wait to do it
Fi, it seems almost incredible to me that my recipes seem to be something positive for you and even inspire you to imagine the sensory experiences surrounding it!
It makes a lot of sense to me that job-based cooking for others is a completly different cup of tea, compared to cooking for people you’re close to, because when doing the latter, you know something about those people’s taste and needs, so the whole process of choosing a dish, getting the ingredients, and preparing the meal is done with a concrete other on your mind your actions are laid out towards. With job-based cooking, on the other hand, there eventually is some anonymous customer you don’t know anything about, and probably don’t think about who might be eating the food and what they might feel while doing it.
To me, it was very helpful to rediscover food as something positive, nourishing, and also as something that can bring enjoyment and establish connection. Cooking for friends or a partner does all of that. When we meet some day I think we will cook together and enjoy it very much.
I made something almost exactly like this….but an unmarried version
I’m sure it was good, too!