A delicious, rich soup combining Texel pumpkin, sweet potatoes, purple potatoes and seaweed. Super tasty and good for you!

On the island you can buy Texel pumpkins at the Novalishoeve and Ekoplaza shops. In autumn they’re also sold at many roadside stands. One is the cart on Pontweg.

You can buy the sweet potatoes and onions for this recipe at the farmer’s stand on Westergeest. Or drop by Farmer Lap’s stand, which has purple potatoes as well. Most of the vegetables are also available from supermarkets on Texel.

Ingredients, serves 4-6

1 small/medium pumpkin
1 red onion
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp butter or oil
100 g sweet potatoes
100 g purple potatoes
2 l vegetable broth
½ chili pepper
Curry mix: turmeric, coriander seed, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon and curry powder (½ tsp of each, ground)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 tsp seaweed

To prepare:

Fill a large pot with water to ¾ depth and place on high heat. Bring to the boil, then add the whole (unpeeled) pumpkin. It should be completely submerged. Simmer the pumpkin for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the pot and transfer to cold water to cool. Peel the pumpkin and chop it into pieces.

Mince the onion and the garlic. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and purple potatoes. In a large pot, gently fry the onions and garlic in the butter or oil until translucent. Add the chopped pumpkin and potatoes. Then add the vegetable broth.

Mince the chili pepper, discarding the seeds if desired (tip: grease your hands in oil beforehand to keep the chili pepper from burning your skin). Add the minced chili pepper and the curry mix to the pot.

Let the vegetables cook for 20 minutes, then remove half of the sweet and purple potatoes and cut them into even smaller pieces. Purée the rest of the vegetables until smooth.

Taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste. In a pan, toast the pumpkin seeds in a little oil. Divide the chopped sweet and purple potatoes among the soup bowls, pour in the soup and garnish with the pumpkin seeds.

Enjoy!

This recipe was created by Annette van Ruitenburg, author of the cookbooks De Smaak van Texel and Lekker Wads.