This pumpkin soup is the ultimate postpartum nourishment, and also doubles as a delicious baby food ‘puree’. Based on ancient Chinese medicine that recommend the new mother focuses on warm, easily digestible foods in the early days whilst the digestive tract adjusts back after birth. It is loaded with bone broth which is nutrient dense and a rich source of collagen (great for healing post birth), pumpkin and sweet potato which are a great complex carbohydrate to stabilise blood glucose levels, coconut milk which is a healthy fat to assist the body in absorbing the micronutrients and keep you full for longer, warming spices such as turmeric (a uterotonic that helps stimulate the uterus return to pre pregnancy size, and a powerful anti inflammatory great for healing post birth), ginger (improves digestion as the digestive organs return to normal post birth. Its also a lactogenic herb that supports milk supply).
It also makes a great postpartum meal as this is something you can pre-prepare in pregnancy and freeze in lunch and dinner portion sizes!
Pumpkin Soup
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Tray
- Large saucepan
- Hand stick mixer
- Grater
- Knife & cutting board
- Garlic press
- Spoon
Ingredients
- 1 butternut pumpkin can use Jap pumpkin or a mixture of both also (approx 1 kg) * see added extra notes for what to do with the pumpkin seeds!
- 1 medium sized sweet potato (approx 500g)
- 3 carrots
- 2 apples
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 TBSP coconut or olive oil
- 1 litre bone broth (I used chicken)
- 400ml coconut milk
- 1 inch fresh ginger grated
- 1 tsp fresh turmeric grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180degrees celcius
- Chop pumpkin into slices and place on baking tray (can either peel first or I find its easier to peel once cooked)
- Peel sweet potato and chop into similar size pieces and also place on baking tray.
- Chop carrots and apples and place on baking tray.
- Add garlic unpeeled onto baking tray
- Coat all vegetables with coconut oil or olive oil and place in oven until roasted and caramelised (around 45 minutes)
- Once cooked place all vegetables into a large saucepan (peel pumpkin if haven’t yet, and squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skin into the pot).
- Grate over the turmeric and ginger into the pot
- Add the bone broth and coconut milk and place the pot onto a medium heat.
- Whilst its cooking use a hand stick mixer to blitz all together (if you don’t have a hand stick mixer you can blitz the pumpkin mixture in a blender/food processor prior to adding it to the saucepan).
- Add water if you want a thinner consistency – otherwise just leave in saucepan until simmering and hot.
- Erve with pesto for an extra flavour hit
- Season with salt and pepper (I always do this after cooking so that I can serve to baby without the added sodium).
ADDED EXTRA:
- I served my soup with roasted pumpkin seeds reserved from my pumpkin. to do this I removed the seeds and took off most of the stringy bits. I then coated with olive oil (2 TBSP) and some salt and placed on a baking tray lined with baking paper into the oven when my vegetables were roasting until they were crisp and brown (about 30 minutes). A great source of magnesium and omega 3!
Notes
This was the best pumpkin soup I have ever made/had. So tasty and so easy. Love the addition of fresh ginger and turmeric. Thank you so much!
Can this be frozen and reheated? I’m just wondering about the bone broth, is it safe to reheat (after being made, then heated in the soup and then reheated). Thanks heaps
If you are buying the bone broth, what brands do you recommend? And what decent ones can you get from coles, Woolies, supa IGA’s etc?
haven’t seen any decent ones at any major supermarkets sorry! I use nutraorganics but I dont recommend for under 12 months due to the sodium content. You can buy some like GoodBones or Byron Bay broth from some speciality stores that are refrigerated and dont use extra salt to preserve them but they are a lot more expensive than homemade x
What type of apples did you use?
I used pink lady!