"Eat, Drink and be Scary"- author unknown
In the recent past years my fruit and vegetable bowls are becoming more and more colourful and adventurous. Having embraced brown and fudgy kiwi fruits from New Zeeland, aromatic and magnificent Alphonso mangoes from Incredible India and green and fresh bok choy from China, it seems I am getting excited about persimmon aka Sharon fruit !!!!
It's not that I have just started devouring Persimmon , many moons ago I was introduced persimmon by my neighbour. She used to give me so many vegetables and fruits as one of her family member was bringing from wholesale market, in return I would cook those vegetable and give her to try. Once she came with almost 1 kg persimmon, I was baffled , had no clue what to do with it, asked friends and family ( there was no Google that time ) but had no luck and sadly those persimmon had to go in the bin.
But past few years, I got to know persimmon inside out ! I absolutely enjoy them as soon as they are in season, and I would say same thing about winter squash too. While I was in India, I only knew about Pumpkin or shall I say it was the only available Pumpkin and mum would prepare Pumpkin sabji, here in UK I can find so many variety of squash and I thoroughly enjoy them too. Check out my few other Squash recipes here like Butternut squash and Spinach curry, Butternut Squash Raita, Orange and Pistachio Nuts tagine, Thai Butternut Squash soup , Beta carotene soup and Moroccan vegetable tagine.
In today's recipe I have used both ingredients, winter squash and persimmon ripen at about the same time of the year, around autumn season and the first glimpse of them at the markets reminds us that The witching season is just here and so many pumpkin recipes waiting to be churned out !
Its a first attempt to use persimmon on a savoury dish as normally I would use it for sweet treats
Pumpkins earthy flavour and sweet persimmon nicely blends together, pumpkins earthy flavour that compliments curry spices beautifully. So simple and easy to prepare, with a golden hue, silky-smooth and thick spicy soup it's perfect autumn warmer. In my house soup always is a treat !!!
Enjoy this delicious and healthy soup on a Halloween night, which is very lively event filled with music, friends and food !!
You will need :-
- 500 g mixed winter squash
- 1 ripe persimmon ( without skin and chopped )
- 1 big onion
- 2 tbsp. roughly chopped celery
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1-2 dried bay leaves
- 1 tbsp. ginger grated
- 2-3 tbsp. curry powder
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 500 ml vegetable stock
- 2 small sweet potatoes washed peeled and cubed
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Fresh coriander for garnish
Method :-
Wash, peel and roughly chop squash.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker and sauté onion, celery, bay leaves and onion.
Add chopped squash , sweet potatoes and ginger and cook 3-4 minutes.
Now add curry powder , persimmon and salt, cook 2 minutes add vegetable stock.
After 3 whistle turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker naturally.
Puree with a hand blender and check the seasoning.
Sprinkle freshly ground black pepper and garnish with fresh chopped coriander.
Serve hot with crusty bread.
Enjoy and thank you for visiting :)
Notes
Carrots or potatoes can be added instead of sweet potatoes.
For a rich soup cream can be added. Vegan can use coconut milk.
To score a few extra points on presentation drizzle spoonful of extra virgin olive oil .
