Pumpkin and sweet potato soup (with peanut dumplings)
This recipe makes approximately 2 litres of very thick soup and approximately 20 dumplings. If you'd like a thinner soup, you can add a whole lot more water (in the end I probably come close to doubling it), but for preparation and storage reasons it's far easier to make a thicker soup and dilute it later.
Ingredients
Soup
- Vegetable oil
- 625 grams pumpkin kabocha or similar variety, cut into 2-3 inch wedges
- 370 grams sweet potato peeled and cut into 1 inch rounds
- Rounded ¼ cup finely diced onion
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1125 millilitres water
- 125 millilitres oat milk
- 2 teaspoons salt
Peanut dumplings
- 100 grams peanuts soaked overnight
- 275 millilitres water
- 40 grams rice flour
- 30 grams potato starch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Rounded â…› teaspoon MSG (there's no evidence it's bad for you so add it to your spice cupboard already)
Tadka
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or vegan butter or a combination of both
- 2 ½ tablespoons finely minced onion
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
Instructions
Make the soup
- Preheat the oven to 200 C fan. Coat the pumpkin and squash with vegetable oil and roast for about 40 minutes. You’ll know they’re cooked when they're a little bit caramelised and you can easily pierce the with a fork or knife.
- Depending on the pumpkin, you can either remove the flesh from the skin or keep the skin on. Blend the pumpkin, sweet potato, water, oat milk, and salt in a blender or food processor.
- Heat 2-3 teaspoons of oil and fry the onion and garlic for 3-5 minutes, until translucent and fragrant. Pour the blended soup into the pan. Keep the heat on low to keep the soup warm.
- If you want a thinner soup, add more water and salt to taste.
Make the dumplings
- Use a blender to liquidise water, rice flour, potato starch, soaked peanuts, salt, and MSG into a smooth paste.
- Pour into a nonstick pan and heat to medium high. Cook, stirring constantly, until the batter thickens and comes together into a thick, oily dough.
- Leave to cool slightly (until cool enough to handle) and then use a half tablespoon to form into rough balls. If the dough is sticking to the spoon, try dipping it in water first. Place the dumplings on a plate or sheet to use later.
Make the tadka
- Heat oil and/or butter to medium heat in a small pan or skillet. Nonstick is easiest. Add the onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until the aromatics begin turning golden and crispy. Add cumin seeds and cook for 20 seconds. Turn off the heat, pour into a heatproof bowl, and immediately add the lime or lemon juice.
Dish up
- Spoon the soup into bowls and place a few dumplings in each. Drizzle some of the tadka over top and serve. You can chuck on some fresh herbs if you're trying to use up wilted green stuff in the fridge.