Winter soup for a clay bowl

Ingredients

• 1.5kg butternut or heirloom pumpkin, in big chunks, skin on
• 2 leeks, washed and sliced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 whole bulb garlic
• Olive oil, salt, pepper
• 1L stock (or water — the vegetables carry it)
• A knob of butter
• To finish: cream or yoghurt, toasted pepitas, chilli oil if you like

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C. Toss the pumpkin and carrots with oil and salt on a tray. Slice the top off the garlic bulb, drizzle it with oil, wrap in a scrap of baking paper. Roast everything 40 minutes until caramelised at the edges — the browning is the flavour, don't rush it.
2. Meanwhile sweat the leeks slowly in butter with a pinch of salt until silky, 15 minutes.
3. Scoop the pumpkin off its skin into the pot, squeeze in the roasted garlic, add the carrots and stock. Simmer 10 minutes, then blend until completely smooth.
4. Season hard — pumpkin soup dies undersalted. Serve with cream, pepitas, and bread that can handle itself.

Keeps for four days and freezes for months. The February version of this soup is made with our passata and called something else entirely.