Smoked Pumpkin Soup

Prep Time : 20 mins

Cooking Time : 20 mins

Serves : 6

This recipe was conjured up due to the very sudden drop in temperature this month. I thought the people of Cardiff really needed somthing to knock their socks off and heat them up from the inside out, and what better than using the abundance of squash we are graced with in this country and spicing it up a little? The magic ingredient in this soup is the Smoked Paprika which can be bought from Spice of Life. It gives the soup such a hearty flavour, I’ve even had people ask if I’d been using a vegetarian stock! Come on!!!

At Riverside Market I serve this soup with a sage and walnut pesto and some Perl Las cheese, the combinations really make me proud to be using such amazing ingredients!

Pumpkin Pie

Prep Time : 60 mins

Cooking Time : 40 mins

Serves : 6

My first memories of this go way back to when I was a child. It was Halloween and having a frugal mother we would use the leftover pumpkin to make a pie. It was never something that was that appealing due to the large quantities of wax that had penetrated through the flesh and the fact that the traditional carving pumpkins aren’t really that great to make the pies with.

However my first Thanksgiving celebration introduced me to a new world and so the game was on to work out a recipe as good as that one. Trial and error always seems to work for me as there is no perfect way of doing things in cooking, if it tastes nice to you then that’s right!

I’ve had Pumpkin Pie on the Riverside Market Stall since day one and every time it has sold out so I must be doing something right. I’ve got Blaencamel Farm to thank as they are the ones who provide me with the great produce in the first place. I hardly use any sugar as the natural sugar content in the squash is quite high due to being picked so fresh.

A couple of Christmassy spices and some organic local eggs, cream and you’re onto a winner!
Good luck, it is a time consuming one but it’s really worth it in the end…