Roast Pumpkin and Smoked Garlic Soup

After buying a pumpkin and smoked garlic at the market last weekend, I thought I'd better do something with it this weekend.  I couldn't find a recipe to make a stuffed pumpkin that I fancied, nor did I have the energy or imagination to come up with something this weekend.  Instead I decided to make a soup, generally using this recipe: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/16899/roast+pumpkin+garlic+soup. 

I used about 8 cloves of smoked garlic, that I kept unpeeled and then removed the skin once roasted.  I didn't have any cumin, so I used cajun seasoning (that has cumin in it).  I think I had less pumpkin than that shown in the recipe, so when I was blitzing it in the blender I left out about 1.5 cups of the liquid from cooking.  I didn't reserve any of the pumpkin to put in after blitzing the soup, I just blitzed it all.  To garnish, I swirled creamed cheese on top with basil pesto and frie onions (finely sliced) and basil leaves.

It was good.  A nice slightly spicyness from the cajun seasoning and you could definitely taste the smokyness of the garlic as opposed to using regular garlic. I served it with a super grainy, seedy mini loaf that I bought from Pandoro, a great Italian bakery.

I'm looking forward to more soups as the weather cools down, especially my favourite Curried Root Vegetable Soup.

Roast Pumpkin & Smoked Garlic Soup