New Recipe - Pumpkin Soup Cosimo the Great*

• Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 Hokkaido or your favorite pumpkin
• ½ of an onion
• oil for the pan
• salt, pepper
• 3 – 4 cups water
• ½ vegetable stock cube (must be organic, yeast free)
• basil-garlic-pesto (optional)
• fresh or dried herbs
• pumpkin seeds
• pumpkin seed oil (to drizzle about)
• * Under the Medici duke Cosimo the Great many gardens were commissioned (in Florence, Pisa etc) housing plants of medicinal and pharmacological importance like pumpkins. Pumpkin helps to prevent and to fight cancer.

Cut pumpkin (I took a Hokkaido, it is the only one you need not peel), take the seeds out. Dice onion. Heat oil in a sauce pan, cook onion, add pumpkin and stir. Let cook for 5 minutes.

Add 3 – 4 cups of water and vegetable broth cube (the less water, the thicker the soup). Bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. Set aside to cool slightly.

I had some basil-garlic-pesto left and added it. Use a stick blender to blend until smooth.

Serve, garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds, fresh or dried herbs. I took some milfoil from the next meadow. It tastes nice, especially on a salad, and is a very popular herb that grows almost everywhere and helps among others against stomach ache.

If you drizzle pumpkin seed oil on the soup it becomes absolutely irresistible! For the very hungry – serve with toasted bread (this recipe).