Gordon Ramsay's pumpkin soup with wild mushrooms recipe

Gordon Ramsay's pumpkin soup is a beautiful mix of autumn flavours, with wild mushrooms making a decadent garnish.

This is a brilliant way to make a pumpkin soup. Rather than chopping up the pumpkin and frying or boiling it, just put it in the oven and roast it. Chop it in half, remove the seeds and prep it with a little oil and garlic first, and you get the most amazing pumpkin purée. The flavour is really intensified by this roasting method. You can do all this well in advance of making the actual soup. In fact, you could use the purée to fill ravioli, make a mash, or even as baby food. It's freezable too, so it's a great way to use up a pumpkin that's about to go off. Nothing goes to waste in this recipe - check out the tip for how to make the pumpkin seeds into a cook's snack along the way.

Ingredients

For the pumpkin purée:

• 1 pumpkin, 1.5kg approx
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally
• Handful of rosemary sprigs
• Olive oil, to drizzle

For the soup:

• 1½ tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 30g Parmesan, freshly grated
• 800ml hot ham stock or chicken stock
• 100ml double cream
• 15g butter

To garnish:

• 1½ tbsp olive oil
• 400g mixed wild mushrooms (chanterelles, trompettes etc), cleaned and trimmed
• 10g butter
• Parmesan shavings

Method

1. For the pumpkin purée, preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 3. Cut the pumpkin in half horizontally and remove the seeds - save these to make a snack (see tip). Score the flesh, season with salt and pepper, then rub with the cut garlic halves. Lay rosemary sprigs and a garlic half in each pumpkin half. Drizzle with a little olive oil and place on baking trays.
2. Roast the pumpkin halves for about 1 hour until tender; the timing will depend on the variety, density and thickness. It is ready when you can effortlessly slip a knife into the thickest part of the flesh. Take out the rosemary and garlic; reserve the garlic. While still hot, scoop out the pumpkin flesh and purée in a blender or food processor.
3. For the soup, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and cook for 5–6 minutes until soft and translucent. Scoop out the flesh from 2 or 3 roasted garlic cloves and add to the pan with the nutmeg and a little seasoning. Sauté for a further 1–2 minutes.
4. Stir in the pumpkin purée and Parmesan, then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10–12 minutes. Stir in the cream and heat for a minute.
5. In batches, ladle the soup into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the butter and blitz again to a velvety smooth texture. Pour the soup into a clean pan to reheat.
6. For the garnish, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the mushrooms over a high heat for a few minutes until the moisture released has cooked off and the pan is quite dry. Add the butter, season the mushrooms and stir, then remove from the heat.
7. Pour the hot soup into warmed bowls and spoon the sautéed mushrooms into the middle. Top with Parmesan shavings, grind over some pepper and serve.

Top tip for making Gordon Ramsay's pumpkin soup

Make extra and freeze in portions of two so you have easy lunch options to see you through the winter.

What kind of pumpkin is good for making soup?

You can make this soup with any type of pumpkin, acorn squash, golden or butternut squash, however, we'd recommend choosing ones that are neither too big nor too small. The mini pumpkins (sometimes called munchkins) which sit in the palm of your hand, would be fiddling to use. Very large pumpkins can be watery which makes for a thin soup with a less velvety texture. Specialist pumpkins are becoming more popular in UK supermarkets, such as green Natura Delica pumpkins or white ghost ones (which are still orange inside). Both of these would work well.

Can you cook a carving pumpkin?

You can! All pumpkins are edible, but the very large ones are grown for size, rather than flavour, and they tend to be a bit stringy or watery, making them a less satisfactory option for soup. Gourds are not edible, they are just for decorating or carving.

What can I do with the pumpkin seeds?

Use up your pumpkins seeds to make the most delicious cook's snack. When you remove them from the pumpkin halves, drop them into a bowl of water. Rub them together and swirl around to remove the stringy bits of flesh. Dry them on kitchen towel and arrange them in a layer on a baking tray. Season with salt and pepper and roast them with the pumpkin halves, for about 10-15 minutes, shaking the tray every 5 minutes.

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