Source video by YouTube on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.
Jamie's classic pumpkin soup uses a dense squash (Muscade de Provence, onion squash or butternut), softened aromatics and chicken stock, all blended to a silky finish. He cooks it in a pressure cooker for speed, but the recipe translates beautifully to a slow cooker where the squash and aromatics have hours to deepen in flavour. It's served with Parmesan-crusted ciabatta crostini and crispy fried sage leaves. A comforting, autumnal bowl that needs little more than a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to finish.
Slow cooker notes: Original recipe uses a pressure cooker for 6 minutes. Adapted for slow cooker: sweat the aromatics on the hob first (as Jamie does) to build flavour, then transfer everything to the slow cooker with the squash and stock. Stock reduced slightly because slow cookers retain liquid (1.6 litres instead of 2). Crostini and crispy sage prepared fresh just before serving.
Editor's note: Quantities not stated in transcript and left as null: olive oil (for sweating and frying), salt and pepper, rosemary, sage leaves, ciabatta, Parmesan, extra virgin olive oil to finish. Squash (3 kg) and stock (2 litres in original, reduced to 1.6 L for slow cooker) and the base vegetables (2 carrots, 2 garlic cloves, 2 onions, 2 celery sticks) are explicit. Cooking times for the slow cooker are adapted from general slow-cooker knowledge, not stated in the source. | Second-pass critique flagged 3 fabricated and 5 quantified issues. See critique.issues for detail.
Ingredients
- 3 kgdense pumpkin or squash (Muscade de Provence, onion squash or butternut), peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
- 2 wholered onions, halved and roughly sliced
- 2 wholecarrots, roughly sliced
- 2 wholecelery sticks, roughly chopped
- 2 wholegarlic cloves, crushed with the side of a knife
- rosemary, fine leaves picked
- olive oil
- 1.6 litreschicken stock
- sea salt and black pepper
- ciabatta, sliced (add late)
- Parmesan, finely grated (add late)
- fresh sage leaves, picked (add late)
- extra virgin olive oil (add late)
Method
Pour a glug of olive oil into a large pan over a medium heat. Add the sliced red onions and celery and start sweating them off.
~3 minAdd the sliced carrots and crushed garlic, then the fine rosemary leaves with a pinch of salt and pepper. Shake the pan and continue cooking until softened.
~6 minChop the pumpkin into chunks (you want about 3 kg of prepared flesh).
~8 minTip the squash chunks into the slow cooker along with the sweated base vegetables.
~2 minPour over the chicken stock so the vegetables are well covered. Pop the lid on and cook on Low for 6 hours or High for 3 hours, until the squash is completely soft and falling apart.
Just before serving, make the crostini. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and fry the sage leaves until crisp and slightly darker green, about 40 seconds. Lift them out onto a board.
~2 minTurn the ciabatta slices in the sage-flavoured oil to coat both sides, then lift out. Tip excess oil away and return the pan to the heat.
~2 minGrate Parmesan generously over the oiled ciabatta, patting it into both sides. Return to the dry pan and toast for around a minute on each side until golden and the cheese has crusted into the bread.
~3 minBlend the soup directly in the slow cooker with a hand blender until silky. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, then blend again briefly.
~3 minTo serve, place a Parmesan crostini in the middle of each bowl, push it down and stand another one up alongside. Pour the soup around it, scatter over the crispy sage and finish with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.
~3 min