Red Pumpkin Soup

This time for Radhika's Blog Hop, i was paired with Farah. Farah & I started blogging around the same time & do drop by to check out each others recipes, whenever possible... So, it was easy for me to find my way around her blog & choose Pumpkin Soup for the Blog Hop.. 

I remember tasting this for the very first time in Leela, when i had gone for a training.. As i had mentioned in on of my earlier posts.. best part of training are always the buffet :)..My love for Tomato Soup can't be explained :D & for a foodie, i am scared to experiment.. yeah! i like a few things esp in restaurants & mostly stick to them..( i am working on that now though :))..So, as usual when i saw the name of the soup, i was not sure whether i wanted to have it.. It looked great..color was appealing but had my own doubts..After a lil coxing from my friend & the hotel's rep.. thought i have to give it a shot & i am glad i didn't miss it...Now, when i saw this on her blog.. I knew this would be it.. So here's the soup with a lil tweak :)

Ingredients

1. Red Pumpkin - 1/4 of a pumpkin or 3 cups cubed

2. Onion - 1 cup

3. Cloves - 2

4. Cinnamon stick - 1 inch

5. Garlic paste - 1 tsp

6. Veg Broth/Seasoning cube - 3 cups/ 1cube*

7. Butter - 1 tbsp

8. All purpose flour - 1 tbsp or Cornflour

9. Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp

10. Water - 1/2 cup

11. Salt - to taste

12. Pepper powder - a sprinkle as garnish (optional)

Preparation Time!!

1. In a pressure cooker, add the butter & as it melts, add cinnamon & cloves. To this add onions & sauté lightly

2. To the onions, add garlic paste and sauté for a minute. To this add red pumpkin and mix well. Saute for a minute or two and add the broth

3. Pressure cook this for 2 whistles and once the steam cools off, strain the mixture and separate the broth and cooked pumpkin

4. Once the pumpkins cool, puree it in a blender with water

5. In the pressure cooker, add the pumpkin-onion puree. To this add All purpose flour, red chilli powder & salt. Mix well to form no lumps mixture and add the broth to get the desired soup consistency

6. Give it one boil and remove of flame.. Sprinkle a lil pepper & enjoy this healthy, nutritious & tasty soup :)

Pointers

* You could use the broth at home or the store bought one.If you add a seasoning cube, be careful while adding salt, as cubes have them too! If adding  a cube, add 2-1/2 to 3 cups of water

** Addition of cloves, cinnamon, chilli powder & all purpose flour is optional.. the recipe doesn't call for it.. I think they add flavor ( Cloves & cinnamon) and APF gives a lil thickness and chilli for a lil spice