So, I just made this recipe up on the spot, and it seems to have miraculously worked out! It was inspired by my 9-week old piglets getting into my veggie garden and breaking a unripe pumpkin off the mother-plant. I also have some spring onions that have overgrown to become leek-like 2 months after all their friends were harvested. Combined with a desire to utilise some yet-to-be-used lemongrass that I have in the veggie patch, I came up with this Thai-inspired soup recipe. Its a delightfully refreshing take on the usually full-on creamy pumpkin soup that we are all used to in Autumn. Worth a try with some of your earlier or frost-affected pumpkins.

I used:

1kg of unripe pumpkin flesh

500g of oversized spring onions (7 x 4-inch lengths)

4 small lemongrass stalks

4 cloves of garlic

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp chilli flakes or 1 dried chilli

1 tsp celery salt

1 tbsp chicken stock & 1L of water

2 tbsp butter

100ml can of light coconut cream

I did:

Generously discard green skin and flesh of unripe pumpkin and cube remaining flesh. Finely slice the usable section of the spring onions or leeks. Heat a heavy based pot over med heat and throw in the butter and the spring onion. When the spring onion is looking nice and translucent (about 5-10min – but DON’T burn), throw in the garlic, lemongrass and pumpkin. Cook for a further 10 min, stirring occasionally. Then add the remaining dry ingredients. Stir and cook until nice and fragrant. You can now add the rest of the goodies and cook for an hour or so. Season liberally with salt and a little pepper. Blend and serve.

Note: If you’re preparing the lemongrass from fresh as I did, cut an inch or two off the bulb end, peal off the rough butter leaves until you’re to the fleshy core. Finely dice the bottom 2/3 of the stalk and put it in a mortar and pestle and smash it up before adding it to the soup.