Pumpkin is a common soup ingredient because it is colorful and can be combined with all sorts of other flavors. Kohlrabi, on the other hand, is one of those vegetables that, if people think about it at all, they don’t really know what to do with. It has a round, bulbous stem, which makes it resemble a turnip, but it is actually from the cabbage family ('kohlrabi' translates literally from German as cabbage turnip). It has been forgotten by the masses for years, but is increasingly finding its way back on to supermarket shelves.
Kohlrabi has an understated taste and so, like pumpkin, goes well with lots of other ingredients. Kohlrabi can be eaten raw – grated into a salad or cut into strips and eaten with dips, for example – or cooked, such as in this thick vegetarian-friendly soup. If there is any kohlrabi left over from this recipe, it is easy to cook, drain and mash with a little milk and butter as one would potatoes.
Serves 4 as a main meal. Allow any remaining soup to cool and put in the freezer for future use.
Preparation time: 15 minutes.
Cooking time: 25 minutes.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb / 500 g pumpkin
- 1 large or 2 small kohlrabi
- 2 medium potatoes
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 vegetable stock cubes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Sour cream to garnish
Preparation:
- Peel, de-seed and dice the pumpkin, then peel and dice the kohlrabi.
- Wash and dice the potatoes – there’s no need to peel them. The vegetables can be roughly chopped, but all the pieces should be a similar size so they cook at the same speed.
- Heat a tablespoon of sunflower oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and gently fry the onion and garlic until soft.
- Add the pumpkin, kohlrabi and potatoes, stock cubes and 35 fl oz / 1 liter of water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 20-25 minutes.
- For a chunkier soup, simply mash the vegetables roughly in the pan with a potato masher. Otherwise use a hand-held blender. If the soup is too thick at this point, add a little more water and heat through.
- Season with salt and pepper if necessary, but bear in mind that stock cubes are already quite salty.
- Divide the soup between four bowls and garnish each bowl with a small ‘dollop’ of sour cream.
Enjoy for lunch or supper with a slice of fresh, crusty bread.
Find a recipe for deliciously tasty risotto-stuffed pumpkin here.
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