Dear Reader,
Last week I was chatting with a friend at work. She’s a “grad”. “Grads” are part of a workplace graduate program common across government departments in states, territories, and the Australian Government.
We were talking about cooking meat dishes, and she mentioned the cost of meat. It’s true; meat is expensive, and I know not everyone can afford to buy it often.
We got to chatting about meat-free options and shared how we both like pumpkin soup made with roast pumpkin.
Ingredients
- Kent pumpkin (¼)
- Red Royale potato (1)
- White onion (1)
- Coconut cream (270 mL)
- Vegetable stock (1 cup)
- Laksa paste (2 tablespoons)
- Sourdough bread (1 slice)
- Lurpak butter (1 nudge)
Instructions
- Take your cook’s knife and honing steel and hone the blade as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend (Proverbs 27:17 [NLT]).
- Turn the oven on and set the temperature to 180 °C.
- Cut the pumpkin and potato into large chunks. I leave the skins on.
- Cut the onion in half.
- Spread the pumpkin, potato, and onion on a baking sheet and season with salt. I always used iodised salt because so-called exotic salts like Himalayan pink salt probably contain toxic heavy metals. Iodine is also healthful. Pregnant people and children must have sufficient iodine in their diets to avoid cretinism and intelligence deficits. I also drizzle a little golden syrup over the vegetables to assist with the caramelisation process.
- Put the vegetables into the oven for about an hour. Monitor the vegetables to avoid burning them.
- When the vegetables are soft, put them into a large saucepan with a cup of vegetable stock, the laksa paste, and bring them to a boil.
- With a stick blender and process the vegetables until the soup is smooth.
- Add the coconut cream and gently heat it through.
- Toast the sourdough bread and apply lashings of Lurpak butter with a trowel of some sort.
- Serve the soup in a bowl with the toast. If you wanted to, you could add some cheese to the toast for a cheese toastie which would be a lovely accompaniment.
- Give thanks to the Lord for wages to buy food and skills to cook food.
Final thoughts
Feel free to leave a comment in the comments box at the end of this post. I’d welcome your comments.
- Is meat too expensive?
- How often do you eat meat?
- Do you enjoy meat-free meals?
- Do you talk about food much with your workmates?
Saturday lockdown dinner. Laksa flavoured roast pumpkin soup. 
Kent pumpkin and coconut cream 
Cut Kent pumpkin, Royale Red potato, and a white onion. Saturday lockdown dinner. Laksa flavoured roast pumpkin soup.
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I eat a lot of fish, shellfish and meat. It is expensive relative to vegetables and fruit but considering the life of a battery hen, probably not expensive enough. My guts don’t do well with anything more than modest amounts of vegetables and pulses though!
I’m feeling a lack of fish at the moment. Canberra is in lockdown now, and the fish shop I usually purchase salmon from is closed.
What a great idea to mix pumpkin and laksa paste Gary. Looks and sounds wonderful. But…I had a huge smile on my face when I saw the amount of butter you have on your bread..ha ha.
Thanks, Sue. It was delicious and meat-free although not quite vegan 🙂
Meat probably isn’t expensive enough, given the unsustainable way people in developed countries eat it. And that includes me. I enjoy meat-free meals, and squashes are delicious. My workmates and I discuss food, but not nearly enough…
Thanks, Emma. I think there should be more food talk at work 😁
I probably wouldn’t work as much though 🤔
Looks like a great laksa flavoured pumpkin soup, Gaz. Great choice of coconut milk. It’s my go-to coconut milk as well, very creamy. I think meat expensive, from chicken to beef to seafood – especially prawn, crab and lobster. I try to have some meat with at least one meal each day.
I don’t mind meat free meals so long as it’s not entirely processed – like I’d much rather have fresh pumpkin soup over a processed mushroom burger pattie. Did you use mint for some garnishing
Hi Mabel, thanks for sharing your thoughts on using coconut milk or cream in dishes like this.
I used to think I’d always be able to afford the best cuts of meat; that’s not the case, unfortunately.
I’m looking forward to the portion I have in the freezer. I’ll enjoy it later this week.
I garnished with basil 🙂
That is a good observation. The best cuts are the tastiest but definitely eats into the budget. But they can always be a treat 🙂
Enjoy your leftovers 🙂
I agree, I’m now looking more at how to stretch out something nice. Like beef short ribs. It’s expensive, but I can make a 1 kilogram pack last for about four meals. That’s about $5 a meal.
That’s very careful planning and portioning on your part. It’s like a small treat every day. Maybe at some point we’ll see beef short ribs pizza from you 😀
If the beef I have in the refrigerator lasts until Friday it might, but I think I’ll do it in a few weeks.
Meat is expensive. In this house we either get stuff hunted (deer and more recently a turkey). Lately, we’ve been eating bunny. Burger and shredded and roasted and slow cooked. The kid raises it and it is NOT something we usually talk about. Because we get a lot of horrified looks!! I still like the versatility in a chicken, though. I try to serve some kind of a meat every night. The Craftsman grew up in a meat and potatoes family and I just kept it up. We do eat a lot of cheese and we did have toast with melted cheese and garlic tonight at dinner!! I made twice roasted potatoes the other night with a gravy deer sausage mix in the well with the rest of the taters mixed with cheese on top. Except, I also added celery and onion and peas and carrots. Alas, the kid was sure he was going to die. He’ll eat raw peas, but not cooked ones!
It sounds like you’ve got a good supply of meat from hunting and breeding, Kris. As a city dweller, I don’t know how much hunting goes on in Australia. Deer, rabbits, and foxes were brought over by the early settlers and are now regarded as vermin. To maintain Kangaroo ecology, they are regularly culled.
I’m amazed at how many people had ‘great’ ideas to import a species and now those things are invasive! Rabbits are one of the WORST, since they breed…well, like rabbits!!!!!!!! I”m thankful we have so many different kinds of meat around. It is fun to cook odd foods. Wild turkey (invasive in many areas) are totally different from ones you pick up in the freezer section!!!
Does turkey hunted in the wild, taste better than the turkeys you get frozen in a supermarket?
Nose crinkle. They are a lot more difficult to cook. VERY lean. Many people (lazy ones) extract the breast and and or legs and discard the rest. You need to oil the heck out of the things, too. They also have less meat on them. So, for larger sorts of meals, I like to have a supermarket bird. For ordinary dinners, wild is fine. Taste is largely relative, it is a game bird and can have a chewier mouth feel. Which is a tad annoying! I often use a lot of garlic and onion seasonings no matter what is cooked, so honestly…am not exactly sure!! I need to cook that second half this next week and I’ll let you know!
Thanks Kris for explaining. It’s great to get extra insight into the differences between wild hunted turkey versus farm reared supermarket bought birds 🙂
I’ve always preferred wild. The deer just gotten in this weekend was eating rosehips. So, healthy choices!!!!
I would never have thought to combine roasted pumpkin with laska, how brilliant Gary. Great willpower would be needed when you smell the divine vegetables roasting and refrain from eating the lot until they get pulsed. I like a small amount of meat every night but served with at least 4 vegetable accompaniments. Lunch is predominantly vegetarian. Often food is discussed at work.
Thanks, Merryn, yes, you’re right. The smells from the oven of the pumpkin, potato, and onion were glorious as they combined with each other. I especially like eating roast pumpkin, so I quickly deposited the roasted vegetables into the saucepan 🙂
Thanks for sharing your feedback. As I get older, I am valuing vegetables more and more, and I’m enjoying more meat-free meals.
…..a more healthful meal. 🤣🤣 butter with a trowel of some sort!
🤣 I do like butter