I made pumpkin soup again, this time with my red kabocha squash. It is definitely soup weather now, with the temperature was in the 20s today (Fahrenheit – brrrrr). This time I made Nigel Slater’s spiced pumpkin soup with bacon. It is online on the Guardian website with some of his other recipes. There are a few pumpkin recipes in the Kitchen Diaries book and I have made the dal and pumpkin soup recipe a couple of times before. Next in line seems to be the pumpkin curry.
I thought the bacon seemed a bit unnecessary so I didn’t bother adding it the first time I tried the soup, but today I followed Nigel’s advice and topped it with some of Blues Creek bacon that I had left in the fridge .
WOW – I am converted. The bacon went amazingly well with the soup, and really set off the flavors. What could be better than dipping your spoon into a steaming bowl of creamy, spicy soup and fishing out some crispy bacon. Unless, of course you are a vegetarian and then I imagine it would be a nasty surprise.
I did something that I haven’t done for years – and cooked the bacon in the microwave. It didn’t seem worth cleaning a greasy frying pan for two rashers. I had forgotten how well it works (between a folded paper towel, and much less messy. I remember that back when we first had a microwave, and we used to make bacon breadsticks, where you wrap a rasher of bacon around a grissini breadstick and zap it for a minute or two. I’m not sure how old I was and I had completely forgotten about that until today.