Beef and pumpkin soup

This is a recent favourite, but we are so obsessed with it we can't stop making it.

For one large pot of soup you will need….

Lean diced beef, trimmed
A small pumpkin or a butternut squash or an acorn squash or any kind of squash really, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
A big onion
A red or yellow or orange pepper
2-3 cloves of garlic
A good grating of ginger (if you like – your call)
A chili (or two or three depending on how you like it!)
A beef stock cube
Some Caribbean spices. I have used Island Spice beef-and-pumpkin soup mix, Grace pumpkin soup mix, and a mixture of Jerk and Caribbean BBQ spices (by Dunn’s River) in the past, all with good results





2 bay leaves
3 whole allspice berries (dried)
Some fresh tomatoes, chopped into six or eight depending how big they are
Sweetcorn (canned or fresh) – optional
Beans (I like kidney, aduki or gungo peas) – optional
Black pepper (not an option, haha!)

If you are doing it in a slow cooker, just bung everything in with the meat at the top, make up the stock cube as a pint of stock initially, and then just top up til it looks soupy enough for you. Then just leave it to cook for as long as you’ve got – I have done this very successfully overnight on low, and in six hours on high.

OR

In a pan, brown off the beef and add the onion, garlic, ginger and chili. Soften together and then just add everything else and enough stock to cover; bring it up to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook til the veg and the beef are tender. This is seriously deeeeelicious.