Creamy pumpkin soup with seeds and croutons

In the weeks before Christmas, when the days are short and everyone comes in cold, a bowl of pumpkin soup is what I want on the table. This is the soup from our Sweet Eat card: pumpkin and onion, blended smooth, finished with warm cream and served with pumpkin seeds and croutons. It is easy, it takes about half an hour, and the colour alone makes a grey evening brighter.

The card makes three bowls. You need 600 g of pumpkin flesh, 150 ml of cream, one onion, 20 g of pumpkin seeds, croutons, and salt and pepper. The card says 20% cream; in the shops here the closest thing is single cream, which works well. Weigh the pumpkin after peeling and taking out the seeds, because a whole pumpkin weighs a lot more than the flesh you get from it.

Cutting a pumpkin needs a little care. I put it on a damp cloth on the board so it doesn't slide, use a large, sharp knife and cut it into wedges first, then peel each wedge lying flat, away from my hand. The seeds and stringy middle come out easily with a spoon.

The card gives two ways to cook it: roast it, or boil it, together with the onion. Roasting gives a deeper, sweeter taste. I toss the pumpkin cubes and the onion, cut into quarters, with a little salt and spread them on a tray, then roast them in a hot oven until soft and starting to brown at the edges. Boiling is quicker and gentler: pumpkin and chopped onion in a pan, covered with water, simmered for about 15 minutes until a knife goes in without any effort.

One thing the card doesn't list is the liquid for blending. If I boil the pumpkin, I keep some of the cooking water. If I roast it, I add a little hot water or stock to the blender. I start with a small amount and add more until the soup is as thick as I like it; it is easier to thin a soup than to thicken it.

Then I blend it until it is completely smooth, with a stick blender in the pan or in a jug blender. Hot soup in a jug blender needs care: I fill it no more than half full and hold the lid down with a folded tea towel, because the steam can push it off.

The cream goes in at the end. The card says to pour in warm cream and heat for two minutes. I warm the cream gently first so it doesn't cool the soup down, stir it in, and keep the soup on a low heat for a couple of minutes without letting it boil hard. I taste it, add salt and pepper, and it is ready. I keep a spoonful of cream back to swirl over each bowl.

While the soup heats, I toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan for a few minutes until they start to pop and smell nutty. The tip on our card is about the croutons, and it is a good one: add them only just before serving, or they go soft in the soup. I put them on top at the table, not in the pan.

If there is soup left over, I let it cool, cover it and put it in the fridge within two hours, and eat it within two days. I reheat it until it is steaming hot all the way through, stirring so the cream doesn't catch on the bottom. The croutons I keep separately in a dry, closed container.

Creamy pumpkin soup. Serves 3. About 30 minutes. You need 600 g pumpkin flesh, 150 ml single cream, 1 onion, 20 g pumpkin seeds, croutons, salt and pepper, plus hot water or stock for blending. Roast or boil the pumpkin with the onion until soft. Blend until smooth, adding cooking water or stock to loosen. Stir in the warm cream and heat gently for 2 minutes. Season, then serve with toasted seeds and croutons added at the table.

Do you like your pumpkin soup thick enough to stand a spoon in, or thin and silky?