I’m in love with pumpkin right now. I guess because we don’t eat it all year around but that’s with a lot of vegetables too when they are in season. It’s so comforting and delicious and also very versatile; you can eat it just by itself, cook it in the oven, use it in a soup as a thickener, or use it in a risotto for example.

Last week I bought some dried split peas. They take less to soak and less to cook than most other legumes and also are considered much more digestible.
I put them to soak the night before and cooked this soup the following hours, about 18 hours soak, the more the merrier.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):
-1 red onion
-600 gr pumpkin, after you’ve taken the skin off
-300 gr dried split peas, soaked overnight and rinsed well
-1 tsp cumin seeds
-extra virgin olive oil
-coarse salt

Chop the onion and sauté in a deep pot with 1 tbls olive oil, some coarse salt and the cumin seeds. Once the onion looks translucent, about 5-10 minutes, add the pumpkin that you have cut into 1-2 inch cubes and the rinsed split peas. Add some boiling water (you can use a kettle) covering 1 inch above. Cook with a lid half on for 30-40 minutes untill you can see the pumpkin and peas mushing up. Turn the heat off and use a hand blender to make the soup.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and if you want some cayenne powder (or homemade like this one)

It’s also great to have as leftover. just be sure to add some water when you heat it up. 🙂