Of course a fresh pumpkin is the best and a must for making this extremely nutritious soup. This soup is extremely energizing. Swear it cures the flu. Pumpkin is a very yang (according to my zen macroboitic cookbook) vegetable, which means its has very alkaline propeties, with optimum energy along with the chopped fresh watercress to finish the soup (which is a very yang herb as well).

Supposedly, according to Dr. Lam, its not good to eat lentils if you are a O blood type. But I believe that the red lentils are a must in this satisfying soup.

This first version of this soup involves heavy prep but it is an absolute must for a cure all soup.

Boil water, carrots, celery, red onion, peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, salt.

To prepare the fresh pumpkin, start by cutting the pumpkin in half, seed, then in quarters. be careful — pumpkin can be a treacherous vegetable to work with. Pumpkin leveled on a flat surface, with a paring knife, skin the peel (orange skin) by gliding the knife along side the pumpkins surface, while it lays flat on board. Place all skins in a muslin bag (www.herbsproducts.com) for easy retrieval.

Add pumpkin, fresh sprig of rosemary and muslin bag with skins to boiling stock. Cover and simmer until the pumpkin is fork tender about 50 minutes. Take out muslin bag and sprig, the leaves should have fallen off. With an emersion blender, blend pumpkin until desired consistency (some small chunks are delecious). Add lentils, olive oil,cayenne, curry and nutmeg simmer until cooked, about 30minutes. Salt. Serve topped with fresh watercress and olive oil.

Get down quick way would of course by using organic canned pumpkin puree.

Try topping the pumpkin soup with homemade spicy parsnip chips and/or olive oil too. You can also try adding chopped golden apple to this soup.

And there goes my ancient chinese secret. In the time for pumpkin season.

I’ve always wanted to use an electric knife for prepping the pumpkin. Let me know if you’ve had luck with this.