Cooking with Kids: Get spooky with this pre-Halloween pumpkin and coconut milk soup

Pic: iStock

Squash, which includes pumpkin, are inexpensive and plentiful at this time of year. 

It can be tricky prizing them open but once you do children usually love scooping out the soft ochre centre, and the squishy seeds within. 

The surrounding orange flesh can be used in many ways, and its sweetness lends very well to baking, much like carrots in carrot cake.

Opening the squash and cutting it into wedges is best done by an adult, children can then work with the chunks.

The soup is a hearty dairy-free lunch option, and the little chefs can decorate it before serving. 

Toasted seeds, a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of herbs, or a swirl of coconut milk all work really well. There will inevitably be a bit of a mess, but it is all about embracing it and enjoying the process and hopefully, the results will be tasty too.

Pumpkin and Coconut Milk Soup

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

A warming, coconutty slurp for the autumn evenings.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 35 mins

Total Time

 55 mins

Course

 Side

Cuisine

 American

Ingredients

• 800g of pumpkin flesh

• a dash of olive oil

• 1 medium onion

• 3 garlic cloves

• a piece of ginger, about 2 inches long

• ½ tsp mild chilli powder – if you like

• 1 tin of coconut milk

• 400ml stock

Method

1. Pre heat your oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

2. Pumpkin is difficult to cut and to peel as it can be quite hard, so ask an adult to do this. Take out the seeds from the centre of the pumpkin and save them for the activity below. Put the chunks of pumpkin into a roasting tray or a large ovenproof dish.

3. Toss the chunks in the oil.

4. Ask an adult to help you peel and slice the onion. Add this to the dish. Crush the garlic with a garlic crusher and add this too. If you do not have a garlic crusher, ask an adult to help you slice the garlic up. Grate the ginger and add it as well. Put the dish into the oven to roast the vegetables for 30 minutes, the pumpkin should be soft after this time.

5. Once the dish has cooled enough so you can handle it scoop everything into a big saucepan. You can use the stock to rinse out the dish and add this to the saucepan as well. Add the coconut milk from the tin. With an adult blitz the soup with a wand blender (soup gun) until it is nice and smooth.

Activity: Spiced pumpkin seeds

You can make a snack with the seeds from the pumpkin. 

Take about 80g of seeds from inside a pumpkin. 

Remove any stringy bits from the seeds and rinse them with cold water. 

Pat them dry removing as much moisture as possible. 

Toss the seeds in 4 teaspoons of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of ground cumin and 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika, add a pinch of salt and spread them onto a flat baking tray and roast for 10 mins at 180ºC/gas mark 4 . 

Allow them to cool before munching them.