Curried Pumpkin Soup

This is a great winter warmer; it's so quick to make and very comforting on a cold day. Make it as spicy as you prefer by using different spice blends to roast your pumpkin.

Low Carb Curried Pumpkin Soup

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 500g pumpkin, cubed (NOT butternut squash)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil (high heat or light, not virgin)
• about 3 Tbsp spices of choice, such as a garam massala, ground ginger, curry powder etc
• ¹/₂ can coconut cream
• 1 cup good quality chicken stock (or veggie stock for a vegetarian friendly soup
• salt to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180'C (or use a small roaster inside an airfryer)
2. Toss the cubed pumpkin in the oil and then the spice blend. I like a bit of ginger and a lot of a fairly spicy curry blend. You can also use Thai yellow curry paste, beaten with the oil to loosen
3. Roast the pumpkin for 20-30 minutes until well browned and very soft
4. In a liquidizer (or a bowl big enough to use an emergion blender without splashing) combine the roast pumpkin, coconut cream and stock until completely smooth
5. Taste the soup and add salt as needed
6. Serve on its own for lunch or with your favourite low carb cheese scone or bread roll for dinner.

Cauliflower Cheese Soup

This is one of those dishes where the taste to effort ratio is just ridiculously high.

I made it one night when I was as short on time as I was ideas, and I wasn't expecting much to be honest. Cauliflower is ok, but not one of my favourite veggies.

I try to incorporate Meat Free Mondays in my weekly meal planning - as one of the many small things we can do to reduce our carbon footprints, but also as a cooking challenge. I had made brocolli and cheese soup the week before, so devoid of any other meat-free ideas that aren't macaroni and cheese (my pre-banting go-to meat free dish) I just changed the brocolli to cauliflower and the blue cheese to parmesan and cream cheese.

Obviously, adding chicken stock makes this not a truly vegetarian meal; substitute with veggie stock if necessary.

I was honestly surprised with the results, in the most pleasant way. It's rich, velvety and comforting. It tastes of creaminess with a subtle hint of cheese. Hubby loved it, and even the three-year old cleaned his bowl. Pro-tip: involving a toddler in the cooking process will increase their excitement about the dish by at least 50%.

Low Carb Cauliflower Cheese Soup

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 600g cauliflower, broken into florrets
• 100g cream cheese
• 2 cups chicken stock
• ¹/₂ - 1 cup grated parmesan, to taste
• ¹/₄ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¹/₄ tsp salt
• ¹/₄ tsp white pepper

Method

1. Cook the cauliflower until soft (I usually steam mine, or I microwave it when I'm in a hurry). If boiling, boil it in the chicken stock
2. In a blender (with somewhere for steam to escape), or with a stick blender, process the cauliflower, stock, cream cheese and ¹/₂ cup parmesan until smooth
3. Taste, and add seasoning and more parmesan to taste. The nutmeg really does compliment the cauliflower so try not to skip it