With some prawn shell stock left over from a tom yam dish, what better way to utilise it than in a chickpea and roast pumpkin bisque.
A bisque is a rather over-used descriptor these days. People sometimes use it for dishes that have no seafood at all. Originally a French dish based on a strained broth of crustaceans, it is one of the most popular seafood soups. This chickpea and roast pumpkin bisque retains the core ingredients of prawn heads and shells sautéed in oil, then simmered in vegetable stock.
The original bisque style used rice starch as a thickener. Here in this pumpkin bisque recipe, we use the sweet and nutty combination of roast pumpkin and chickpeas.
Chickpeas are such a versatile and nutritious ingredient. They work great in this roast vegetable curry, as they do in this beetroot and mushroom salad.
The soup is so tasty it really doesn’t need much else except some bread to soak it up. However, I wanted it to look as interesting as it was going to taste. I did this by invoking its seafood origins – topping with some prawns, mussels, and seaweed.
The roasted chickpeas may not be from the sea but looked in place as crustaceans and added a great nutty character to this pumpkin bisque recipe.
Chickpea and roast pumpkin bisque recipe
Ingredients
Prawn stock
- 500 g prawns
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 3 cups water
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 10 g butter
- 3/4 cup dry white wine
Roasted chickpeas
- 1/2 can chickpeas 200 g
- 1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
- 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Chickpea and roast pumpkin bisque
- 2 cups roast pumpkin
- 5 cups prawn stock
- 1/2 can chickpeas 200 g
- 100 ml cooking cream
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper.
- 2 Tbsp fish sauce
- 4 mussels optional
- 10 g butter
Truffle oil, sea grapes, and red seaweed to garnish, plus the roasted chickpeas, prawns, and mussels.
Instructions
Prawn stock
- Remove the heads and shells from the prawns, removing and discarding the veins that go down the back. Set the prawn meat aside in the refridgerator.
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, then add the butter.
- When the butter has melted, add the prawn heads and shells.
- Saute the heads and shells until the bottom of the pan starts getting a little sticky. Don’t let it start burning though.
- Add the wine, vegetable stock, and water to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- If using mussels as a garnish, steam them over the simmering stock.
- Allow to cool a little, then strain, discarding the shells.
Roasted pumpkin
- Preheat the oven to 200 degC.
- Peel the pumpkin and cut into 5 cm pieces.
- Put the pumpkin on a baking tray, sprinkle with olive oil, and roast until the pumpkin is soft and starting to brown on the edges, about 40 minutes.
- Set aside 4 pieces of roasted pumpkin (1 per plate) for the final assembly.
Roasted chickpeas
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
- Set aside 1/2 the can for the bisque.
- Toss with the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
- Roast on a baking tray in a 200 degC oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden and crispy.
Assembling the bisque
- Blend together the pumpkin, the chickpeas previously set aside, and the prawn stock until smooth.
- Optionally, strain the blended mixture to ensure no chunks.
- Put the blended mixture into a saucepan, add the cream, pepper, and fish sauce, and return to a simmer. Check for seasoning.
- Add more stock if it is too thick. I like my soups to be the consistency of heavy cream. You get to savor the taste more if it is not too thick.
- Stir fry the prawn meat in the butter until just cooked through.
- Add a piece of pumpkin to the centre of a plate, and assemble some prawns, roasted chickpeas, and seaweed pieces as a mound on this pumpkin.
- Place the mussels if using.
- Spoon around the pumpkin bisque. Add some seaweed pieces to finish off. Drizzle with some truffle oil.