The first soup of autumn should do two jobs: warm you, and remind your body that the season of holding heat has begun. I spent the last week of August at Cuisine et Santé in the south of France, on a macrobiotic cooking retreat where soup was served with lunch and dinner, and it rekindled my love for the daily bowl: hydration built into the meal itself, along with warmth, minerals from the vegetables and seaweed, and probiotics from the miso that finishes the pot.
Here, red lentils melt into sweet pumpkin for light protein and substance, and wild greens bring bitterness, a gentle liver stimulant that supports detoxification. My daughter cooked along with the group and loved chopping the vegetables with the big knives, though for now she will only drink the broth. If nettles and dandelion are beyond your reach, watercress does the job as well.
Servings: ~4 portions
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
INGREDIENTS
600 g / 4 cups pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 tbsp olive oil or sesame oil (15 ml)
A good pinch of sea salt
200 g / 1 cup red split lentils, rinsed
1 small piece of kombu, about 5 cm (optional, and worth it)
1.2 litres / 5 cups water
Two generous handfuls of nettle tops, dandelion leaves or watercress, roughly chopped
2 tbsp white or barley miso (30 g)
Fresh turmeric or a pinch of ground turmeric (optional)
METHOD
- Warm the oil in a heavy pot. Add the pumpkin and salt and cook on a medium heat, stirring now and then, until its water releases and cooks off and the cubes begin to catch a little sweetness, about 10 minutes. Do not rush this step; it is the soup.
- Add the lentils, kombu and water. Bring to a gentle boil, skim any foam, then simmer, lid ajar, for 20 to 25 minutes, until the lentils have melted.
- Lift out the kombu (chop it fine and return it if you like). Stir in the greens and let them wilt for two minutes.
- Take the pot off the heat. Loosen the miso in a ladleful of the broth, stir it back through, and serve without boiling again, so the miso stays alive.
The bowl comes up gold, the greens dark against it, and the steam smells the way the first cool morning feels.
Nutrition Facts (approx., per serving)
Energy: 260 kcal
Protein: 14 g
Fat: 6 g
Carbohydrates: 38 g (of which sugars 6 g)
Fibre: 8 g
Rich in: plant protein and steady carbohydrate from the lentils, beta-carotene from the pumpkin, minerals from the greens and kombu, and live fermented miso for the gut
Notes & Variations
Spinach works where wild greens are unavailable, though you lose the bitter note. For a silkier soup, blend before the greens go in.
The soup thickens overnight; loosen with water and re-season with a little miso rather than salt.
Yin–Yang Balance
Sweating the pumpkin in oil and salt before any water is added moves a watery vegetable toward warmth and substance, exactly the direction the body wants to travel in autumn. The bitter greens keep the sweetness honest, and the miso grounds the whole pot.
Vegan / Gluten free (check your miso) / Sugar free