Soup is a great filling and warming meal for the winter months, and also makes sure we get our full compliment of vegetables! It's great to buy seasonal and local veg if you can. Soups are a cost effective and healthy way of feeding the family, and this recipe will feed up to 6 people and is well suited for home freezing.

In total, including the cooking process, this meal served with some rustic bread costs under £5 for the whole meal. A bargain!

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes, plus 45 minutes if baking the pumpkin
Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 medium onions
• 1 x 8cm piece fresh root ginger (you could also use frozen or dried ginger instead)
• 2 carrots
• 1kg pumpkin or other squash
• 3 x 15ml olive oil or vegetable oil
• 750ml vegetable stock
• 5–10 ml Maggie’s Roasted with Balsamic Chilli Sauce
• Salt to taste

To Serve:

• 6 x 15ml single cream
• Chopped chives or parsley leaves

Tip before starting:

This is a great way of using up pumpkin pieces from hollowed out pumpkins, but if you buy a pumpkin or squash just to make this soup, then an easier way to handle the pumpkin is to place it in the oven at 180^OC for up to 45mins, until it is soft to the touch.

Remove the baked pumpkin or squash from the oven, and when it is cool enough it will be easier to peel and chop into chunks.

Any left over can be served as a side vegetable with a sprinkling of olive oil, and your favourite Maggie's spice!

Method:

1. Peel and roughly chop the ginger and onion into small chunks
2. Wash and roughly chop the carrots into round chunks
3. Peel, de-seed and chop the pumpkin or squash into chunks
4. Place a medium heavy-based saucepan on the cooker and turn to high heat
5. Add the oil to the saucepan and when the oil is hot add in the chopped onions, ginger and carrots
6. Stir fry the vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes until the onions soften
7. Turn do wn the heat to medium, then add the chopped pumpkin pieces to the onion mix in the saucepan
8. Stir in the stock, turn up the heat and bring the contents of the saucepan to the boil
9. Cover the saucepan, turn the heat down to low, and allow the contents simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until the vegetables are really soft
10. Liquidise the soup using a blender or food processor, or press through a sieve
11. Reheat the soup and add Maggie's Roasted with Balsamic Chilli Sauce, and salt if required
12. Serve garnished with a swirl of cream and some chopped herbs (chives, parsley, dill, or fennel...)

Top tips:

• Serve with warm chunks of fresh baked bread
• More cream can be added to the soup before it is served to give a more creamy texture. Enjoy!