Recipe: NewcastleDavey's spicy pumpkin soup

If, like me, you enjoy carving pumpkins at Halloween, why not make good use of the flesh you have to scoop out and double your pleasure.

I've been making this for the last few years and it's difficult to get wrong. So, wash your hands & warm yourself up this Halloween with this delicious and spicy pumpkin soup :-

Cooking time: 45 mins

Serves: 5

What you'll need:

• The flesh of two medium pumpkins (take the seeds and 'hair' out first)
• Two medium onions
• Four chicken stock cubes
• One pint of boiling water
• Four red chillies (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)
• Two medium red peppers
• 6 cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• A couple of pinches of ground black pepper

And of course...

• A big cooking pot or pan
• Measuring jug
• Knives
• Chopping board
• Wooden spoon
• Electric stick blender

What to do:

1. Scoop out the flesh from your pumpkins.
2. Chop the chilli, onions, garlic and peppers fairly coarsely.
3. Heat a good splash of olive oil in your pan and add the above chilli, onion, garlic & peppers.
4. Boil the kettle and dissolve your stock cubes in a pint of boiling water.
5. Stir the contents of your pan a bit until the onion starts to go soft.
6. Pour and stir in the stock water from step 3.
7. Bring to the boil and add the pepper & fold in your pumpkin flesh.
8. Cover the pan and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft enough to mash, then blend.

Top tips: Why not carve a face or some such image into the pumpkin shells whilst the soup's simmering. Place a lit tea light inside the pumkin and dim the lights for full effect. Don't forget you've got a pan of bubbling, hot soup on the cooker...

Enjoy.