Bacon, Pumpkin & Potato Soup with Garlic & Herb Croutons
Bacon, Pumpkin & Potato Soup with Garlic & Herb Croutons
It’s the time of year for pumpkins, they’re everywhere and probably carved into some weird and wonderful shapes too.
Kids love this time of year!
It’s probably more to do with the shimmering candles than eating the inside.
It may also be the association with spooky costumes and going from house to house to collect enough sweets to make their tummies sore for the rest of the week.
With so many recipes for pumpkin soup around at this time of year, who needs another one, right?
You’re probably correct, but just in case you’ve not found one you love yet, this one has it all.
The natural sweetness of the pumpkin, the added bonus of the slightly salty bacon, and then with tons of crispy herb and garlic croutons on the top, even if you’ve got a recipe you love, it’s worth giving it a try.
I know i love it!
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Lots of croutons and bacon on the top
What You Need
Soup
1 Pack of Bacon – Chopped into pieces
1 Large Onion – Chopped into pieces
3 or 4 Large Potatoes – Peeled and chopped into cubes – See Tip Box
Leftover Pumpkin (Approx’ 500g or more) – Peeled and Chopped into cubes – See Tip Box
1 Litre of Hot Vegetable Stock
4 Tbs Oil
Salt and Pepper
Veg in the pan
Croutons
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
50g Butter - Melted
2 Garlic Cloves – Grated
2 Tsp Dried Mixed Herbs of choice
1 Tsp Malden Sea Salt
Crispy, flavoursome croutons
How It’s Done
Place the oil, chopped bacon into a deep sided pan and cook on low to medium heat until the bacon is crispy and brown – See Tip Box
When they are cooked, remove them from the pan onto a plate and set aside until needed.
Time to start to deglaze the pan to get up all of those flavours, and it’s easy to do.
Take the pan off the heat and pour a couple of ladles of the hot stock into the pan.
Start to scrap the brown bits off the bottom and sides of the pan.
As you scrap, begin to mix them into the hot stock.
Once you’ve as much of the tasty bits off the pan as you can, add the potato , onion and pumpkin and begin to cook it in the pan.
Keep the potato and pumpkin cooking in the pan until able to put a fork in them – See Tip Box
If not already in a very deep pan, transfer all of the contents of the pan into one.
Add the remaining stock, salt and pepper and bring it all up to the boil.
Once boiling, turn down the heat and let it simmer until the potato and pumpkin are very soft.
Take the pot off the heat and let it cool for around ten minutes.
Keep some bacon aside for later and return the rest of the cooked bacon to the soup pot.
Begin to liquidise the soup until its really smooth – do it in batches – See Tip Box
Return the soup to the pan when blended and reheat before serving sprinkled with the garlic herb croutons and bacon bits.
Deglazing the pan gets all those tasty bits
Croutons
Heat the oven to 180c
Mix the melted butter, olive oil, dried herbs and grated garlic together.
Lay the sliced bread on a baking tray and brush both sides with the garlic and herby butter.
With a sharp knife, cut all the slices into cubes.
Place the trays into the hot oven and cook for around 10 minutes or until the croutons are golden brown.
Once brown, take out of the oven, sprinkle liberally with the salt and let them cool completely so that they go crispy
Use on top of the soup and in other things such as salads.
Store in an airtight container for a couple of days.
Mixture on both sides and then cut into squares
Tip Box
Pumpkin – If you’ve no pumpkin , this recipe is works well with sweet potato
Potato – Skins- Don’t waste the potato skins, use them to make potato skin crisps
Bacon & Onion – Don’t rush the cooking of the bacon and the onion. It takes patience to get the bacon nice and crispy, but it needs to be looked at regularly so that it doesn’t burn.
Liquidise – Doing this in batches helps to make sure the blender doesn’t over fill and spill hot soup everywhere.
Perfect
