Recipe: Praveen's Pumpkin Soup With Parmesan Foam

Pumpkin is very much an autumn and Diwali season vegetable. And yes, it lends itself to soup beautifully, as the weather gains a chilly edge.

If you would not like your soup too sweet, choose a raw not too orange slice of pumpkin.

Chef Praveen Reddy adds an intriguing touch to his Pumpkin Soup With Parmesan Foam. He serves it up with this Parmesan cheese concoction, which with the addition of lecithin basically ensures that the mixture of milk and cheese is creamy and light and is a topping for the soup. Apple, microgreens and pine nuts add myriad flavours to the soup making it a gourmet special.

The executive sous chef at Raffles Udaipur, Chef Reddy has 16 years experience in his profession, working under a few Michelin chefs in the Middle East, when he did stints at the Raffles Doha and worked in Dubai, Salalah (Oman), Abu Dhabi.

Pumpkin Soup With Parmesan Foam

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

For the soup:

• 1 kg kadu or lal bopla or pumpkin, peeled, diced
• 100 gm onions, chopped
• 30 gm garlic chopped
• 500 ml vegetable stock (please see the note below)
• 250 gm butter
• 1 Granny Smith apple, julienned
• 10 gm pine nuts, roasted
• 10 gm salt
• 10 gm black pepper powder
• Handful microgreens

For the Parmesan foam:

• 200 gm Parmesan cheese
• 150 ml milk
• 10 gm lecithin liquid or powder, available for purchase online 

Method

For the soup:

• In a large saucepan, warm the butter over low heat.
  Add the chopped onion, garlic and saute until golden.
  Add the diced squash.
  Fry for a few minutes and add the salt, black pepper and the vegetable stock and cook over medium heat until the pumpkin softens.
  Cool.
  Blend to a puree in a mixer/blender.
  Keep aside

For the Parmesan foam:

• Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan over low heat and add the cheese.
  Take off heat and add the lecithin and blend with hand blender.

Assembly:

• Add the apple and roasted pine nuts to the hot soup.
  Pour into individual soup bowls and garnish with microgreens.
  Top the soup with the Parmesan foam.
• Serve hot with a side of toasted bread or garlic bread

Editor's Note: Liquid broth is available in some gourmet food stores. Or substitute the vegetable broth by combining 1 vegetable broth/bouillon cubes or 1 tsp vegetable broth/bouillon powder with 2 cups boiling water.

Or make vegetable broth from scratch by boiling 4-5 cups water with 1-2 large roughly chopped carrots, 3 stalks roughly chopped celery with leaves, 2 medium onions chopped in chunks, 5-6 whole black peppercorns, 2 tsp salt, 4 tbsp chopped parsley with stems, 2 laung or cloves, 5 pods garlic, 2 tej patta or bay leaves till vegetables are tender and the water is steeped with the flavour of the vegetables and spices.
Strain and use 2 cups for the recipe.
Freeze the rest for future use. 

Chef Praveen Reddy earned his degree from Hyderabad's Westin College of Hotel Management.

• REDIFF FOOD