Destressing Pumpkin Soup

When you're buried six feet under in a pile of book-rubble thanks to the oh-so-exciting end of semester exams, you often find yourself sprouting creative ideas (aka. procrastination) from all orifices on your body.

The brainchild of my uber-ultra-uhhh-productivity is this super destressing pumpkin soup! Why destressing? Because it takes about half a brain to make. Even Amus* could make it. It also makes you feel productive -- you are technically doing something useful...just perhaps not studying.

For those who are living in Sydney, let's ignore for a minute the amount of sun we've been getting in the past few days and rewind back about a week or two or so.

Rain. Remember that kids? Yes. Well this soup is perfect for those days...and books, if you must.

I didn't originally plan on posting about this soup, but my test guinea pig decided that it was safe enough to share with the world and encouraged me to post it.

So here it is folks!

* Chicago reference, in case you're giving me the eyebrow

Destressing Pumpkin Soup
Serves: 3

To buy:
1/2 Butternut Pumpkin
4 cups Chicken Stock (always have more on standby, though)
1/2 tbsp Dried Parsley
1 onion, roughly sliced
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Cream (optional)

To cook:

1. Cut pumpkin into 2cm cubes. Roughly.
2. Add oil to a deep pot and saute onions until transparent
3. Add pumpkin and gently stir around to initiate cooking process
4. Add stock and bring to boil. Put on lid and bring down to simmer
5. Sprinkle dried parsley. Season with salt and pepper
   
6. Simmer for about 20-30mins until pumpkins are soft enough to break with a fork.
7. Blend content either with handheld mixer, or in batches** in a blender.
8. Return to low heat and stir around content until even.
9. Add cream if desired
10. Serve with buttered toast/soldiers/whatever you fancy.
    

** If you're using a blender, make sure you leave the middle opening slightly ajar so that the lid of the jug does not fly off (i.e. to have the blender exploding on you). It gets messy. I'm pretty sure you don't want that happening.

Cheers.