Pumpkin puree soup that everyone loves

I have a soup... Oh, I have the kind of soup that everyone likes. In the distant pre-YouTube times in Odessa, of course, they also ate pumpkin, but not all and, strangely enough, not in the form of soup. The classics of the genre were two dishes: millet porridge with pumpkin and platzindy with pumpkin. Of course, pumpkin was baked and pickled, but in general this miracle berry (botanically speaking, it is a berry, and often bigger than watermelon) was not used for first courses for a long time. Obviously, until blenders came along. And everything changed.

Today we will cook what gourmets dream of, watching their health and figure - we will cook lean soup. The best variant of such soup is pumpkin soup. The best at least because, unlike many Lenten soups, pumpkin soup is a hearty dish. And about the useful properties of pumpkin, this immigrant from America, and we can not talk: it is among the champions.

We will need one onion, one stalk of celery and salt for the vegetable broth. For the soup itself - 200 grams of carrots, 400 grams of pumpkin, another large onion, 50 grams of vegetable oil (I like olive oil) and salt to taste.

To begin with, we cook vegetable broth: in the salted boiling water we throw the onion and the stalk of celery. Boiling.

Meanwhile, put a thick-bottomed pan on the fire, add olive oil - let it warm up. At this time you need to chop the onion - not too finely.

Clean and prepare carrots. It should be cut into cubes, quite large. This is done so that they can be fried, not stewed.

The pan is heated, and we throw the onion. Do not stew for a long time; wait for the onion to become translucent. Add the diced carrots, stir, and fry without covering with a lid for about 5 minutes.

Without wasting time, cut the pumpkin - also in cubes. Some people recommend searing the pumpkin first, but I like the roasted version better - it's faster and the flavor is more expressive.

Carrots are roasted? Add the sliced pumpkin to the pot. Stir, fry a little, reduce the heat, cover with a lid and leave to stew for 10-15 minutes - until the pumpkin becomes soft. Check in the simple way, with a fork.

As soon as this happens, add hot vegetable broth to the pot - the temperature should not drop. We take exactly enough broth to cover all the ingredients. Cover with a lid and cook for another 15 minutes.

The finish is nearing, it remains to make a puree of all that we boiled. Take the pot off the heat. Put the immersion blender on low speed, and thoroughly grind everything in the pot. Taste; if necessary, add salt or vegetable broth.

There are fans who add cream to pumpkin soup; I do not put. You can sprinkle such a soup with chopped herbs and drop a spoonful of sour cream when serving, but it seems unnecessary to me. If you want beauty, while the soup is boiling you can make pumpkin chips - fry or dry thin bars of pumpkin.

Labor costs with this soup are not in any comparison with the result. The output is very tasty, very healthy, absolutely healthy Lenten soup. And most importantly, hearty! Try it.