It’s autumn which means it’s the season for soups and pumpkins, and this makes this the perfect recipe. I absolutely love it. The harissa and orange give it such a nice depth of flavour — they really lift the soup and make it taste special.
I honestly never thought I’d give a soup such a score (9/10). I had even marked it with a pink label, meaning I wasn’t expecting to be that excited about it, but it completely blew me away. I love that it uses every part of the squash (or pumkin) — you roast and caramelise the seeds, which I think is brilliant. I’d never done that before, but now I will every time. The only problem is that I usually finish the seeds before the end of the recipe… oops.
You can easily make this recipe all year round since squashes are available year-round, though pumpkins are more seasonal. I made it with a squash and would love to try it with a pumpkin next time to compare — I have a feeling the greener ones might be a bit tastier, but I’d love to hear other opinions on that.
I used one big squash, about one and a 1.5 kilos. The recipe says it serves four to six, but I’d say it comfortably serves four. I didn’t have crème fraiche or saffron at home and couldn’t be bothered to get it, but it was still brilliant without. I’m very curious if anyone who did used it noticed a big difference.
It’s also super easy to make — you just put everything in the oven and then blend it all up. I didn’t use/have any saffron but think the orange and harissa are the real stars of the show anyways here. I also used halved the amount of olive oil to roast the squash, and it was completely fine — a good reminder to myself that I don’t need the full 60 ml.
This is easily one of my favourite autumn dishes of all time. It’s rich, bright, and deeply comforting — perfect with some sourdough bread and butter. What more could you want?
Rating: between a 6.5-8 out of 10
Cooking book: SIMPLE
Label: pink (not very keen to make it)
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