My Mother’s Golden Bowl From Guadeloupe

When I was a boy in Guadeloupe, the rain did not arrive politely. It came over the hills behind our house in one grey wall, and within a minute the yard was a river and the tin roof was a drum. On those afternoons my mother would send one of us out to the back of the garden, where a giraumon vine had been climbing the fence since before I was born, to cut a pumpkin.

Giraumon is our pumpkin. Big, ridged, green and orange on the outside, deep gold inside, and sweeter than any squash I have found since. My mother would split it with the big knife, scoop the seeds into a bowl for the chickens, and cut the flesh into chunks while the onions softened in the pot. Then coconut milk, thyme from the pot by the door, a whole chilli dropped in for perfume and fished out again, and the kitchen filled with that smell. Sweet, savoury, a little bit of the sea from the coconut. Six children around one table, six spoons, one pot of golden soup and a stack of bread to wipe the bowls clean.

I have made this soup in every kitchen I have cooked in since. In the catering years, when Full Feast was still a van and a lot of hope, it was the thing I made for the crew at the end of a long day. Now I make it in England, where the rain arrives much more politely but stays for a lot longer, and where the pumpkins turn up in the shops the same week the light starts to go.

The one thing I have changed is the finish. Back home my mother would stir a spoon of chopped herbs, garlic and lime through the pot at the end to wake it up. Here I use my Fresh Herbal Sauce, which is that same idea in a jar. A spoon goes into the pot, a spoon goes on top, and the green swirl on the gold is the prettiest thing you will put on the table this autumn. No heat at all in this one, so the children can have it. Let me show you how I make it. The proper way. The way I learned it.

Recipe at a glance

• Cuisine: French Caribbean (Guadeloupe)
• Prep: 15 minutes • Cook: 30 minutes • Total: 45 minutes
• Serves: 4 generously
• Featured sauce: Fresh Herbal Sauce
• Heat level: 0/10, all warmth and no fire
• Diet: Vegan, gluten free, dairy free

What you’ll need

The pumpkin matters more than anything else on this list. If you have a Caribbean grocer near you, ask for giraumon or calabaza, sold by the wedge, and buy a big piece. If not, the best British swap is a Crown Prince squash, the grey-blue one with the dense orange flesh, or a good butternut. Do not use the pale carving pumpkin from the Halloween display. It is watery and it tastes of nothing. For the coconut milk, buy the full-fat tin, not the light one. This soup needs the cream.

• 1.2kg giraumon, Crown Prince or butternut squash (about 1kg once peeled and deseeded)
• 1 medium floury potato (about 200g), peeled and cubed
• 1 tbsp coconut oil or sunflower oil
• 1 large onion (about 150g), finely chopped
• 3 spring onions, sliced, white and green parts kept separate
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 5 or 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 whole scotch bonnet, left completely whole (optional, for aroma only)
• 400ml tin full-fat coconut milk
• 700ml vegetable stock (a good cube is fine)
• ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of 1 lime
• 4 tbsp Fresh Herbal Sauce, 2 for the pot and 2 for the top
• A handful of toasted pumpkin seeds, to serve (optional)

How I make it

1. Prepare the pumpkin. Cut it into wedges, scoop out the seeds and the stringy middle, then cut the skin away with a small sharp knife. Chop the flesh into rough 3cm chunks. Do not be precious about this; it is all getting blended. If your squash is very hard, ten seconds in the microwave on each wedge softens the skin enough to peel.

2. Sweat the base. Warm the oil in a large heavy pot over a medium heat. Add the onion, the white parts of the spring onions and a pinch of salt, and cook gently for 8 minutes until soft and sweet. You want no colour on them. Listen for the sizzle to go quiet; that is when they are ready.

3. Add the aromatics. Stir in the garlic, thyme sprigs and bay leaf and cook for 1 minute until the garlic smells sweet and the thyme starts to crackle.

4. In with the pumpkin. Add the pumpkin and potato and stir well so every piece is coated in the oil and onions. Let it all sit for 2 or 3 minutes so the edges of the pumpkin start to catch a little. This is where the sweetness begins.

5. Pour in the liquid. Add the coconut milk and the stock, then the nutmeg, the teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. If you are using the scotch bonnet, drop it in whole now. Whole means whole. Not cut, not pricked. It will give the soup a floral perfume and none of its fire, and it comes out before you blend.

6. Simmer. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down to a low simmer, half cover with the lid and cook for 20 minutes, until a knife goes through the pumpkin with no resistance at all. Stir once or twice so nothing catches on the bottom.

7. Take out what does not get blended. Fish out the thyme stalks, the bay leaf and the scotch bonnet. Look for the chilli carefully. I once missed one and my brother found it. He still talks about it.

8. Blend. Take the pot off the heat and blend with a stick blender until completely smooth and glossy. If you want it silkier still, pour it through a sieve, but my mother never did and neither do I. If the soup is thicker than you like, loosen it with a splash of hot water or stock.

9. Finish with lime and the green. Put the pot back on a very low heat. Squeeze in the lime juice and stir through 2 tablespoons of Fresh Herbal Sauce. Taste. It will probably want a little more salt; pumpkin always does. Do not let it boil again after the sauce goes in, you want the herbs fresh, not cooked.

10. Serve. Ladle into warm bowls. Spoon a little more Fresh Herbal Sauce over the top of each bowl and drag a spoon through it so it swirls green through the gold. Scatter over the green parts of the spring onions and the toasted pumpkin seeds. Bread on the table, always.

The role of Fresh Herbal Sauce in this dish

Pumpkin soup has a problem, and it is the same problem everywhere in the world: it is sweet and smooth and soft, and after four spoonfuls your mouth wants something to cut through it. In Guadeloupe my mother solved this with a last-minute spoon of green, chopped parsley, chives, garlic, spring onion, lime, whatever was growing by the door, stirred in when the pot came off the heat.

That is exactly what my Fresh Herbal Sauce does here. It is packed with fresh herbs, garlic and citrus, and it has no chilli in it at all, so it lifts the soup without changing its character. Stirred into the pot it turns the whole bowl brighter and more savoury. Spooned on top it gives you that first hit of green against the coconut sweetness, and it looks like a painting. When people ask me what the secret ingredient is in this soup, this is it.

Tips from my kitchen

• Buy more pumpkin than you think. A 1.2kg squash loses a good 200g to skin and seeds. If you end up with more than 1kg of flesh, use it all and add a splash more stock.
• Roast the pumpkin first if you have time. Toss the chunks in a little oil and roast at 200°C (180°C fan) for 25 minutes before they go in the pot. The soup will be deeper and sweeter. On a weeknight I skip this and it is still very good.
• The potato is not optional. One small potato gives the soup body without cream. Without it, coconut soup can go thin and split-looking when it cools.
• Do not blend it hot with a jug blender. If you are not using a stick blender, let the soup cool for 10 minutes first and blend in two batches with the lid vent open. I learned that one the hard way, and so did the ceiling.
• Toast the pumpkin seeds. Rinse the seeds from your squash, dry them, toss with a little oil and salt and toast in a dry pan for 5 minutes until they pop. Nothing is wasted. That is how I was raised.

What to serve it with

Back home this soup comes to the table with bread and nothing else, and honestly that is still my favourite way. A crusty baguette, or a warm flatbread to tear and dip. If you want to make it more of a meal, a spoon of cooked rice in the bottom of the bowl is very Guadeloupe, and so is a few cubes of fried plantain on top.

For something with a bit more fire alongside, a small dish of my Caribbean Hot Sauce on the table lets the chilli lovers dot their own bowls while the children stay safe. On a Sunday I will serve it as a starter before roast chicken, and it sits very happily next to a plate of accras de morue if you are feeling ambitious. All my sauces are vegan, so this whole meal can be too.

If you want to try the herb sauce alongside its fruity sister, the Fruity & Herb Discovery Quartet is the gentle way in.

FAQ

What is the best pumpkin for soup?

A dense, sweet, dry-fleshed variety. In the Caribbean that is giraumon, also called calabaza or West Indian pumpkin, which you will find by the wedge in Caribbean and Asian grocers in most UK cities. The closest British swaps are Crown Prince, Kabocha and butternut squash, all of which make a beautiful soup. Avoid the big orange carving pumpkins sold for Halloween; they are grown for size, not flavour, and they make a watery soup.

Can I make pumpkin soup with coconut milk instead of cream?

Yes, and in Guadeloupe we always have. Coconut milk gives the soup its richness and a gentle sweetness that cream cannot match, and it keeps the whole thing vegan and dairy free. Use the full-fat tin, shake it well before opening, and do not boil it hard once it is in the pot or it can look grainy.

Can you freeze pumpkin soup?

Yes. Let it cool completely, pour into containers or freezer bags leaving a little space at the top, and freeze for up to 3 months. Coconut milk soups can separate slightly when they thaw, so reheat gently and give it a quick blitz with the stick blender to bring it back together. Add the Fresh Herbal Sauce on top fresh when you serve, not before freezing.

How do I make pumpkin soup thicker?

The potato in this recipe does most of that work. If your soup is still thinner than you like, simmer it uncovered for another 5 to 10 minutes to reduce, or blend in a handful of cooked white beans. What I would not do is add flour. It dulls the flavour and it means the soup is no longer gluten free.

Is this soup spicy?

No. The whole scotch bonnet gives fragrance, not heat, as long as you leave it completely intact and take it out before blending. My Fresh Herbal Sauce has no chilli in it at all. If you want heat, add a few drops of Caribbean Hot Sauce to your own bowl at the table. That is how we do it at home: one pot for everyone, and each person makes it their own.

Final word from me

There are recipes that impress people and there are recipes that look after people. This one looks after people. It is the soup I make when someone is tired, or unwell, or has just come in from the rain, and it is the soup that takes me straight back to my mother’s kitchen with the roof drumming and six spoons going. Make it this week while the pumpkins are good. Put the pot in the middle of the table and let everyone swirl their own green through the gold. And if you make it, tell me how it went. I want to know.

JP