Simple Pumpkin Soup Recipe – Cooking On a Budget

The marketing teams at supermarkets are absolute masters at convenience. Pre-chopped, pre-packaged, beautifully bundled fresh meal kits are designed to catch your eye when you are tired, hungry and trying to figure out what to cook for the week.

And even though it is a healthy and cheaper alternative to eating out, you can always make it cheaper yourself. That’s what I did last weekend.

During my routine weekly grocery run, I spotted a fresh Jumbo Pompoen Soep Verspakket priced at €4.69 for a kit meant to serve 4-6 people. It comes with (almost) everything you need for a cozy autumn pumpkin soup in one box.

But then I paused and thought about things I already had in my kitchen – I had all, except for the pumpkin. Onions? Check. Garlic? Check. A carrot and a red pepper? Check. Bouillon cubes? Absolutely.

So instead of buying the whole pre-packaged kit for €4.69, I decided to buy just the organic pumpkin on its own for €2.49. By skipping the pre-made bundle, I instantly kept an extra €2.20 in my pocket while using up leftover veggies we bought last week.

That is the exact philosophy of a No Buy Year – making things from scratch using what you already have instead of paying a convenience markup for plastic and cardboard.

How to Make Simple Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients You Need:

• 1 pumpkin (chopped into cubes)
• 2 onions & 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 carrot (sliced into thin rounds)
• 1 red bell pepper (cleaned and sliced into strips)
• 2 vegetable or chicken bouillon cubes
• 1.2 liters of water
• a pinch of curry powder, salt, and pepper

Optional twist: swap 200 ml of water for 200 ml of coconut milk if you want it extra creamy.

Step-by-Step Instructions For a Simple Pumpkin Soup

1. prep the veggies: give everything a good wash. For the pumpkin, there are couple methods how to cut it with more ease – look them up and pick your favorite.
2. heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large soup pot. Toss in the cubed pumpkin, sliced carrot and onion. Stir on high heat for about 4 minutes.
3. add garlic, a dash of curry powder and the bell pepper. Let it sit together for just 1 minute.
4. pour in the 1.2 liters of water, crumble in your bouillon cubes and bring the whole thing to a boil. Turn the heat down low, pop the lid on, and let it simmer gently for 15 minutes until everything is fork-tender.
5. take it off the heat and use an immersion blender to puree the soup until it’s completely smooth.

The Real Cost Savings

Sure, saving a couple of euros might not sound like a fortune on its own, but these micro-decisions add up massively over the course of a 365 days. Not only did I save money, but I also rescued the veggies sitting in my kitchen from getting forgotten (and rotting) in the back of the fridge.

One thing that I should work on more is meal planning and meal prepping. We do it but sometimes we still waste food – maybe not as much as we used to – because we don’t get to use certain things up in time for them not to go bad. This was a perfect opportunity not to let it happen.

Out of curiosity I decided to make some quick calculations and soup I made costs us 66 cents per serving (not including bread on the side).

It was also a great occasion to try something new without spending a lot of money. Both me and my husband really liked it and I’m going to make this soup in the future for sure!

Soups in general are very cost effective if you want to cook on a budget. If you get big packs of veggies that you can use in multiple dishes, it helps to save a ton. And aside from trying to figure out how to cut a pumpkin for the first time in my life (thanks, Google!), it’s very quick meal, that you can prepare in around 30 minutes.

Have you ever tried one of those convenient meal kit? Or would you rather pick your own veggies? Did you find your new favorite dish this way? Let me know!