Devillishly Good, Bariatric-Friendly, Pumpkin Soup

 

DON’T THROW AWAY YOUR PUMPKIN!  This jewel of a golden globe can cast a sweet spell and make a magical soup – perfect for Hallow’een or post trick or treat eating. 

Used in this soup recipe it provides a warming, almost devilled, lift to an autumnal veggie and wls favourite. It makes 6 good sized non-wls portions, so ideal for crowd feeding but also freezes beautifully too. A favourite of mine to conquer the cold in the autumn and winter months!

 

Bariatric-Friendly Base

The soup, made with your pumpkin will have lots of great nourishment but when mixed with tomatoes, onions, celery and red lentils the nutritional profile and protein stats will increase. If you’re short on the pumpkin or butternut squash required then add extra chopped carrot to replace the deficit and benefit from the sweetness they bring. Needless to say, if you wish to boost the protein further then add some unflavoured protein powder after cooking (while warm but not very hot so that it mixes in beautifully).

 

Bariatric-Friendly Toppings

If you’re every early post-op then maybe you’ll just take your soup plain and blended very smoothly or with a swirl of yogurt at most. But later you can add chopped herbs, a scattering of sliced chillis (I used some sliced stuffed ones), a sprinkling of toasted seeds, a little crumbled or grated cheese, a low-fat crisp or better still (for protein) a Parmesan crisp (see how to make here).

 

Bariatric-Friendly Sides

This is a hearty soup so it’s very filling but those who are wls veterans (that would be me then!) and non-wls eaters might like some bread on the side. I think my protein bread (see how to make here) is wonderful and moreover nutritious (as well as being bariatric-friendly).

DEVILLED BUT DELICIOUS PUMPKIN SOUP

Ingredients

METRIC/US

low-fat cooking spray or mist

2 red onions, chopped

1 celery heart, trimmed and chopped

1 tsp chopped red chilli (I used Lazy Chilli)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

800 g/1¾ lb pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped

200 g/½ lb carrots, peeled and chopped

1½ tsp garam masala

275 g/10 oz small cherry tomatoes (I used red and yellow), halved

150 g/¾ cup red lentils

1 litre/4¼ cups hot water or light vegetable stock/bouillon

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Method

1.  Generously spritz a very large pan with low-fat cooking spray or mist. Heat, add the onions, celery and chilli and cook for 8-10 minutes until softened and lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute.
2.  Add the pumpkin or squash and carrots and cook for 2 minutes.
3.  Stir in the garam masala and cook for 1 minute then add the tomatoes, lentils, water or stock and salt and pepper to taste, mixing well. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 40 minutes until the vegetables are very tender.
4.  Blitz the soup, in batches until smooth (or retain a little texture if you prefer your soup that way), return to the pan and reheat gently to serve. 
5.  Serve topped with any of the suggestions in the intro above if liked.

 

SERVES 6

WLS PORTION: ¼-½ 

V suitable for Vegetarians

 

CALORIES PER PORTION(without toppings or sides): 175

PROTEIN: 9.2 g

CARBOHYDRATE: 34.6 g

FAT: 1.1 g

 

Main image copyright © Bariatric Cookery (UK) Ltd