Despite grey, cold and rainy autumn days, when I think about autumn I see beautiful and warm colors… Yellow, orange, dark red, green…and what is the best comfort autumn food? Of course, Soup.

Pumpkin soup is one of my favorite in cold days, and I like to combine at least 2 different sorts of pumpkin. Hokkaido is a must, because you can use this beautiful orange skin as well, and the color of soup is more intense. I am trying to avoid using too much double cream while cooking, but like to experiment with different tastes of milk. In this case I used coconut milk because of its light sweetness, and fresh ginger to keep balance that soup does not taste too sweet. At the end I want to serve it with some kind of homemade bread and homemade Breadsticks with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin oil were the best choice. Fast and simple preparation was the best addition to the soup. This soup did warm me up properly and I hope it would be your choice too 🙂

Ingredients:

1 Hokkaido pumpkin

½ Butternut squash

Olive oil

Rosemary and thyme

Salt and pepper

1 Onion cut in cubes and 3 cloves of garlic

Ginger, fresh

Cinnamon sticks

Butter

2 Carrots

Nutmeg

Vegetable stock as needed

Apple juice as needed

Coconut milk as needed

Cut both pumpkins in smaller pieces and scrap out the seeds with a spoon. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, olive oil, rosemary and thyme and roast at 190 C until soft.

In the meantime preheat oil and butter in a pot and sauté onion, garlic and ginger. Add apple juice, reduce, add cinnamon sticks, vegetables stock, carrots, coconut milk and cook until carrot is soft.

Then add roasted pumpkins (Hokkaido with skin and butternut squash without skin), mix it and add, if needed, vegetable stock, juice or milk (it depends how thick you want the soup). Season if needed. Decorate with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin oil.

Serve with homemade Grisini made with pumpkin oil.

Grisini:

500g whole grain flour

2 tee spoon salt and little bit of coarse ground pepper

½ bag of dried yeast

3-4 soup spoon of pumpkin oil

Chopped pumpkin seeds

250-270 ml lukewarm water

Mix dried ingredients, add oil and knead medium hard dough with lukewarm water.

Let it rise in a warm place for an hour.

Roll out the dough into 1 cm thin rectangle and cut into thin strips, form spiral breadsticks (grissini),

coat with little bit of olive oil, place them on a baking paper and bake in pre-heated oven (180C) for about 15-20 minutes (depends on oven). They are finished when they have nice, light brown color.

-Croatian version-

Unatoč sivim, hladnim i kišnim jesenjskim danima na spomen jeseni meni u mislima dođu lijepe i tople boje koje nas asociraju na jesen. Žuta, narančasta, bordo, zelena….a što nam se najviše jede u te dane ako ne topla juha. Juha od buče nezaobilazna je u hladnim danima, a ja volim kombinirati barem dvije vrste. Hokaido je obavezna jer se njezina kora ne mora guliti pa je boja juhe još naglašenija, a slatkoća buternut daje konačni ”touch”. Sve češće juhe radim bez vrhnja za kuhanje, ali zato volim eksperimentirati s različitim okusima mlijeka, u ovom slučaju kokosovim dok svježi đumbir održava balans u okusu kako juha ne bi bila preslatka. Razmišljajući što bih uz juhu mogla servirati, a da ne zahtijeva puno vremena u pripremi, ovaj puta bili su to moji omiljeni grisini, a kako drugačije nego uz bučino ulje i sjemenke…..mene je juhica lijepo zagrijala, a nadam se da će i vas 🙂

Potrebno:

1 Hokaido tikva

½ Butternut tikve

Maslinovo ulje

Ružmarin i timijan

Sol i papar

1 Luk narezan na kocke i 3 cijela češnja češnjaka

Svježi đumbir

Štapić cimeta

Malo maslaca

2 Mrkve

Muškatni oraščić

Povrtni temeljac po potrebi

Sok od jabuke po potrebi

Kokosovo mlijeko po potrebi

Obje tikve očistiti od koštica i narezati na manje komade. Staviti na papir za pečenje, preliti s malo maslinovog ulja, začiniti sa soli, paprom, muškatnim oraščićem te ružmarinom i timijanom. Peći u pećnici na 190 C dok ne omekane. U međuvremenu na zagrijanom ulju i maslacu dinstati luk, češnjak i đumbir, podliti sokom od jabuka i reducirati. Dodati štapić cimeta, povrtni temeljac, mrkve i malo kokosovog mlijeka te kuhati dok mrkva ne omekani. Dodati pečene tikve (Hokaido s korom, butternut bez kore), purirati te po potrebi dodati temeljca, soka ili mlijeka dok ne dobijete željenu gustoću. Začiniti sa soli, paprom i muškatnim oraščićem po okusu. Dekorirati sa sjemenkama bundeve i bučinim uljem.

Poslužiti uz domaće grisine od tijesta s bučinim uljem.

Grisini:

500g crnog brašna

2 kavene žlice soli i malo grubo mljevenog papra

Pola vrećice suhog kvasca i malo šećera

3-4 jušne žlice bučinog ulja

Nasjeckane sjemenke buče

250-270 ml mlake vode

Pomiješati suhe sastojke, dodati ulje i s mlakom vodom zamijesiti srednje tvrdo tijesto. Ostaviti na toplom da se udvostruči. Razvaljati tijesto na 1cm debljine, formirati grisine, premazati ih maslinovim uljem i peći na 180 C dok ne dobiju lijepu boju (oko 15-tak minuta, ovisi o pećnici).