This homemade beef and corn soup is made right inside of a pumpkin. It’s
called a pumpkin tureen. It’s a great dish any time, but especially
suited for the fall; particularly Halloween and Thanksgiving. This will
definitely impress your dinner guests. Serve it with fresh warm bread.
Ingredients:
1 short, wide pumpkin, about 2.3kg (5 pounds)
700 g of round steak or sirloin steak (1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of pepper
2 tbsp of olive Oil
1 large white or yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 large red bell pepper
1 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of chili powder
3/4 tsp of ground coriander
1 - 400 g can of stewed tomatoes (1 - 14.5 ounce can)
1 - 400 g can of beef broth (1 - 14 ounce can)
1 large sweet potato
350 g of frozen corn (2 cups)
Procedure
While you are preparing the pumpkin, allow the oven to preheat oven
to 180 degC (350 degF). Before it gets hot, move the cooking
rack to the lower part of the oven to make room for the whole pumpkin.
Cut the top off the pumpkin to make a lid by cutting in a circle a
couple inches away from the stem. Clean out the pumpkin by scraping out
all the seeds and fibers with a spoon. Put the pumpkin and its lid side
by side in a large baking pan and bake them for an hour until the
pumpkin meat is tender. At that time, leave the oven on but remove the
pan.
While you are waiting for the pumpkin to cook, cut the beef into bite
sized cubes. Peel and cut the onion into bite sized chunks. Peel and
mince the garlic. Remove the seeds and ribs from the bell pepper and cut
it into bite sized pieces. Peel and cut the sweet potato into bite sized
chunks.
Add salt and pepper to the beef and brown it in a large pot with the
olive oil over medium high heat. Remove the beef and set aside, leaving
the oil in the pot. Reduce to medium heat and add the onion, garlic,
bell pepper, cumin, chili powder, and coriander. Saute until the
vegetables are soft.
Put the beef back in the pot along with any juices that have seeped
from it. Add the stewed tomatoes and the beef broth and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer covered for about 45 minutes.
Raise the heat to medium and add the sweet potato and simmer another
15 minutes; until the beef and sweet potato are tender. Stir in the corn
and cook for another 5 minutes.
Use a ladle to put the soup into the pumpkin and put the lid on it.
Place the pumpkin in the hot oven for one half hour. Remove the pumpkin
and put it on a platter being careful to keep it intact. This is most
easily done with 2 wide metal spatulas.
Dish the homemade beef and corn soup right out of the pumpkin. As the
amount of soup is reduced in the pumpkin, you can even scrape some of
the pumpkin meat off the sides to enjoy in your soup. Very tasty!
