Pumpkin soup with shrimp and lime recipe PLUS: how to roast pumpkin seeds

I made a really yummy soup this weekend! 

I have this great slow cooker cookbook that I received as a gift from my wedding - it has so many fantastic recipes in it.

If you're able to get your hands on one I would highly suggest it. It's got everything from fondue and appetizer ideas to soups and stews and main meal ideas. I would be lost without it during the Fall and Winter season!

So I decided to try out a recipe that I hadn't made before - pumpkin soup with shrimp and lime. It sounded exciting and a bit out of the ordinary and now is the perfect time to get pumpkin (not the canned stuff; a real, orange, round pie pumpkin). The main ingredients are pumpkin, leek, shrimp, lime zest, lime juice, and some heavy cream. I love crockpots as they are SO simple and make minimal dishes and clean-up. This recipe was no exception. 

I really enjoyed the texture and flavour of the soup. It reminded me of a butternut squash soup in that it was thick and creamy, but you got little bites of shrimp and a really great lime flavour mixed in as well. 

Chad said it wasn't a bad soup, but not his favourite (though, I'm not sure he's much of a soup person anyways - unless it's full of beef and/or tortellini!). I thought it was really yummy and I also got the thumbs up from Mom and Dad Wookey.

I forgot to take a nice photo of my soup afterwards, but this is the picture they include in the cookbook.

I also wanted to mention that roasting pumpkin seeds is easy and really worth the effort in my opinion! After scooping out the insides of my pumpkin I separated out all the seeds from the stringy, mushy orange gunk.

Wash them and lay them on a baking sheet. Coat them with a little oil or melted butter and salt and bake them in the oven at 325F for roughly 25 minutes.

They'll turn a nice golden brown. Be sure not to roast them too much though - they get a burnt flavour pretty easily if left too long.

I put these in a bowl and they were all eaten by the end of the evening. We snacked on them before supper and added them to our soup for some nice crunch.


If you're carving pumpkins this Halloween I suggest you keep those seeds! They are a healthy and delicious snack.


Here's the recipe.

IngredientsMakes 6 to 8 servings

3	leeks, white part only, cleaned and coarsely chopped
4 cups	vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
1 tsp	salt
1⁄4 tsp	freshly ground black pepper
	Grated zest and juice of 1 lime
Pinch	cayenne pepper
1 cup	whipping (35%) cream
8 oz	cooked salad shrimp or 2 cans (33⁄4 oz/106 g) shrimp, rinsed and drained	250 g
6 to 8	cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp	toasted pumpkin seeds, optional (see Tip)
	Finely chopped chives or cilantro

Instructions

Prep

• Works best in a large (minimum 5 quart/1.25 L) slow cooker 6 cups peeled pie pumpkin, cut into 2-inch (5 cm) cubes

1. In slow cooker stoneware, combine pumpkin, leeks, stock, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 6 hours, until pumpkin is tender.
2. Working in batches, purée soup in a food processor or blender. (You can also do this in the stoneware using an immersion blender.)
3. If serving hot, return soup to slow cooker, add lime zest and juice, cayenne, cream and shrimp and cook on High for 20 minutes, or until shrimp are heated through. If serving cold, combine ingredients in a large bowl and chill thoroughly.
4. When ready to serve, ladle soup into individual bowls and garnish with cherry tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, if using, and chives.

Taken from "175 Essential Slow Cooker Classics" by Judith Finlayson