We had received some very nice quality, sweet organic butternut pumpkins, so we needed to use them during our first Awatapu plant-based cooking class today.
The first thing we learnt was that pumpkin soup is best made with good, old-fashioned varieties like butternut. Butternuts are the harder type of pumpkin and with their natural sweetness, they make an excellent soup.
After a short food and safety introduction, we started preparing the soup, learning new knife skills and traditional vegetable cuts based on classical French cookery. There were lots of tears when chopping onions this morning, but we tackled the task energetically and the onion added a nice savoury flavour to the soup.
Then we made cashew cream to thicken the soup – new flavours, new ideas that can be helpful for those with dairy intolerances. After we added the cashew cream and blended the soup, it was time for everyone to garnish their bowls of soup with cashew cream, parsley, or pumpkin seeds, in a professional manner. Everyone took up the challenge and there were some quite impressive patterns created 😊.
It was also great to explore our small organic bakery together. Miriam, who is a professional baker, was baking sourdough bread, but took a moment to show us the ovens and the sourdough starter. She also gave us a loaf of wholegrain sourdough spelt bread with seeds, which we enjoyed very much with the warming soup.
