Cheese & Marmite Pumpkin Soup

A fabulous soup that's full of flavour and delicious taste. Developed for us by the super talented, award winning Gamekeepers Daughter.

The unexpected addition of marmite is a winner - bringing out a lovely umami deeply savoury flavour. This silky smooth pumpkin soup is perfect for entertaining, for added wow factor serve inside a roasted pumpkin with all the extra embellishments ( see below!).

Ingredients

• 1.5kg orange fleshed pumpkin

• 2 large onions diced

• 100 g aged parmesan

• 50g salted butter

• 750ml vegetable stock ( bouillon powder )

• 150ml milk

• Bunch fresh thyme

• 1-2tsp marmite

• rapeseed oil

To embellish

• Fried shallots ( 2 finely sliced shallots sweated in butter with pinch sea salt for 10minutes)

• Toasted pumpkin seeds

• Reserved parmesan

• Thyme leaves

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c fan.Halve your pumpkin, use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Reserve seeds for garnish later ( see below ) .

2. Cut into large even wedges , place in a large bowl, toss with 2 tbsp oil and season generously with sea salt flakes. Transfer to 2 large roasting dishes and roast for 30-45 minutes or until tender. When cool enough to handle peel and discard the skins.

3. Meanwhile in a heavy bottomed pan , heat 1tbsp oil and gently fry the onion over a very low heat for 10 minutes stirring often. Add a knob of butter , 2 tsp thyme leaves and the Parmesan rind. Continue to cook slowly for a further 10 minutes.

4. Add the roasted pumpkin, stock , milk and plenty of black pepper. Cook on a very low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat , stir in 60g of grated Parmesan and 1 tsp marmite( 2tsp if you’re a marmite fan ). Using a hand blender blitz until smooth.

5. Serve in bowls or roasted pumpkins , with extra parmesan , the fried shallots and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Toasted pumpkin seeds

Ingredients

• Seeds reserved from pumpkin

• Half tsp marmite

• 1 tsp honey

• 1 tsp thyme leaves picked

Method

1. Toast the seeds in a frying pan over a low heat stirring constantly. Add thyme leaves for a few seconds, remove from the heat and stir in the marmite and honey.

2. Transfer onto a parchment lined baking tray and allow to cool.

A Big thank you to Jess from The Gamekeepers Daughter. To find out more about Jess's fantastic food, forage walks and supper clubs find her here: www.gamekeepers-daughter.co.uk