I don’t get overly excited about soup and rarely order it when I go out. However, when soup comes topped with smoky chickpeas and silverbeet dressed with olive oil and lemon zest, I start to get interested. To make this soup into an even more substantial meal you could top the soup with a couple of spoonfuls of cooked brown rice along with the chickpeas and silverbeet.

Pumpkin soup topped with smoky chickpeas, silverbeet & lemon

For the soup:

crown pumpkin half of a medium-sized one

oil a couple of sloshes

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

onions 2, finely sliced

garlic 2-3 cloves, finely chopped

sage, rosemary, thyme 3 tablespoons, finely chopped

chicken or vegetable stock 500ml

water 500ml

equipment: stick blender

Preheat oven to 200°C. Wash the skin of the pumpkin and slice into 10cm chunks. Place on a large baking tray and drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the pumpkin until just tender. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing the skin and discarding.

While the pumpkin roasts, heat some oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion until soft. Add the chopped herbs and garlic and continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Add the cooked pumpkin and cover with the stock and water. Cover the soup and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and use a stick blender to blitz the soup to a smooth consistency. You may need to add more water to loosen the soup up.

For the chickpeas:

chickpeas 1 can, drained or 250g home-cooked chickpeas

rosemary 1 tablespoon, finely chopped

sea salt 1/2 teaspoon

smoked paprika 1 teaspoon

chilli flakes a generous pinch

oil, 1 tablespoon

Put chickpeas into a baking dish and add remaining ingredients. Stir to coat the chickpeas and roast for 20 minutes at 200°C.

For the silverbeet:

silverbeet half a bunch, leaves and stalks

zest of a lemon

extra virgin olive oil two tablespoons

Remove the silverbeet leaves from stalks. Finely chop the stalks and sauté in a tablespoon of oil. Leave the stalks cook for five minute, while you finely chop the silverbeet leaves. Add the leaves to the stalks and place a lid over the frying pan and leave to wilt. Remove the lid, add the lemon zest and remaining one tablespoon of oil.

To put it all together:

Ladle soup into warmed bowls, put a small mountain of silverbeet in the centre of each bowl, sprinkle with a generous amount of chickpeas, and squeeze over some lemon juice.