Spiced Croutons with Roasted Pumpkin Chickpea Soup
Recipe for spiced croutons served with a roasted pumpkin chickpea soup. A hearty and comforting dinnertime meal. The soup is vegetarian and vegan.
Equipment
- oven
- Blender
Ingredients
For the Spiced Croutons
- 2-3 slices Day old or stale sandwich bread cut into squares
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds roasted and crushed
- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds roasted and crushed
- 1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
For the Roasted Pumpkin Chickpea Soup
- 300 grams Butternut Squash About half a medium sized Squash
- 250 grams chickpeas boiled and cooked. Canned chickpeas are fine
- 200 ml Vegetable Stock Homemade or very low salt Veggie stock
- 1 medium onion finely diced
- 1 knob ginger thumbsize piece, grated
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp coriander seeds roasted and crushed
- 1/4 tsp cumin seeds roasted and crushed
- 1-2 dried bay leaf
- 3 black cardamoms
- 3-4 green cardamoms
- 3-4 black cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil For roasting the butternut squash
- 1 tbsp olive oil For sautéing the spices and veggies
For the Soup Toppings
- 12-14 raw cashews soaked in hot water atleast for 30 min
- 1 tbsp cilantro or parsley finely chopped
- 1-2 wedges lemon
Instructions
Make the Spiced Croutons
- Pre-heat oven to 180 deg centigrade.
- Place the cubed bread slices in a baking tray. Pour over the olive oil and crushed spices.
- Massage the spices all over the cubed bread slices. Roast in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 min until the bread pieces turn golden brown. As oven temperatures vary, keep checking after 10 min to ensure the bread is not burning.
Make the Roasted Pumpkin Chickpea Soup
- Roast the pumpkin / butternut squash in a preheated oven for 20 min after spreading the 1 tbsp olive oil and some sea salt on it.
- While the pumpkin is roasting, in a large stock pot heat the olive oil. Add in the diced onions, bay leaf, black + green cardamoms and cinnamon stick. Saute for 2-3 min until the onions turn translucent.
- Next add in the grated ginger , turmeric powder, ground cumin seeds, coriander seeds and salt.
- Once the spices are nicely coated , add in the cooked chickpeas and about half the vegetable stock. Cook for few minutes.
- Once the pumpkin is roasted , remove from oven and cut into large chunks. Add in these chunks into the stock pot with the remaining vegetable stock. Cook for few minutes more.
- If you have a hand blender, switch off the cooking and you can start to blend the soup in the stock pot itself. Otherwise use a normal blender (that lets you blends soup) - Pour over all the ingredients from the stock pot into it and blend.
Make the Toppings
- Ladle the soup into bowls. Top with the spiced croutons and chopped parsley/cilantro
- Separately blend the soaked cashew nuts with few spoons of water in a small blender jar to form a thick paste. Spoon over 1-2 tbsp cashew paste over the soup bowls.