Honey Roasted Pumpkin, Pancetta and Coriander Soup

Halloween has been and gone but if you still have a pumpkin or two hanging around then this is a great soup to use it in!

I bought on the market these ridiculously cute mini pumpkins, I added my pencil in the shot so you can gauge how weeny these babies were:

After a close examination, I realised just how fiddly carving them would actually be and so I opted to make something a little more edible with them, this combined with a few random ingredients that needed using and this tasty, warming soup was born! The pancetta isn’t essential and you could substitute a little more smoked paprika to make it veggie friendly.
The big orange Halloween style Pumpkins can be a little watery, in comparison to squashes designed for eating but by roasting the flesh first, and with careful seasoning, plus a blob of double cream this soup is a real treat, and its even better eaten the next day, as the flavours mellow together
Once you have peeled and diced up your pumpkin, please don’t throw away your seeds! Give them a clean up, rinse and keep your eyes peeled for my next blog post!
Serves 4
Ingredients
620g pumpkin flesh, cut into 1cm dice – this is net weight, my babies weighed in at nearly 1.2kg before trimming. Save your seeds!
15g fresh leaf coriander, roughly chopped.
1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
2-3 tsp clear honey
salt and pepper
Spray sunflower oil
1 onion, diced
90g pancetta cubes
1 heaped tsp marigold bouillon dissolved into 1 litre boiling water
Double cream for serving
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 190o, spray a couple of baking sheets with oil and scatter over the pumpkin, spray with a little more oil and roast for 15 minutes, drizzle with the honey, toss lightly and roast for a further 10 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender

Heat a large saucepan, spray with a little oil and fry your onion over a moderate heat until softened, without browning, add the pancetta and fry until lightly browned. Stir in the roasted pumpkin, smoked paprika and stock, plus most of the coriander, reserving a few sprigs for serving. Cover and bring back to a gentle boil, simmer for five minutes.

Remove from the heat and blitz until smooth with a hand blender (I used my new toy) or in a liquidizer. Season well, serve garnished with a little cream, a few sprigs of coriander. And your special seeds, which I will add here shortly!