When I was a kid, in Scotland, we employed a big knobbly turnip/swede/neep/tumshie (how many names can a vegetable possibly have, you ask?) to make our scary halloween lanterns that we carried from door-to-door, rehearsing our little song, dance or poem along the way - you certainly didn’t get away with telling a lame joke back then! And, if you didn’t totally ‘freeze’ under the stare of a few overly-stern neighbours (who didn’t really get into the whole thing and only under peer pressure, opened their doors), there was a chance that you might get some sweets, a tangerine, a few monkey nuts and maybe even a sixpenny bit for your efforts!

DISCLOSURE: A few real ‘Scrooges’ were known to put all the lights out and went to bed around 6 rather than part with a few monkey nuts - yes, Mr and Mrs P at number 9 and Mrs F at number 18 - I mean you!

Anyways… it was a total relief to us Scots that we have generally accepted the American habit of using a pumpkin rather than a turnip as they were notoriously hard to scoop out and even worse to carve any kind of creative design, but we knew no better - all we knew was that Cinderella’s carriage turned into a pumpkin at midnight, not that it was some kind of massive and carvable vegetable!

And best of all, the pumpkin flesh and seeds we laboriously scoop out can be turned into loads of delicious food!

Here are 2 recipes you might want to make with all the pumpkin flesh that is cluttering your kitchen counters! I have to warn you that the squash/pumpkin and sage soup is a thing of complete and utter beauty and one bowl is never enough plus it’s very hard to say no to a generous helping of the pumpkin/squash and sage pasta which is a favourite at any time of the year.

UPDATE: me and the other kids on our road haven’t necessarily forgiven Mr and Mrs P from number 9 and Mrs F from number 18 but after around 15 years or so, we decided to let the whole ‘halloween thing’ go - grown-up or what?

Pumpkin/Squash & Sage Soup (click on the image for the recipe)

Pumpkin/Squash & Sage Pasta (click on the image for recipe)

BUT…. not only do glorious homemade soups taste so, so much better than canned, pouched, cartoned or take-away soups (well, that’s MY view anyway), but generally-speaking, there is a deal less sugar, salt and on occasions, saturated fat therein!

In an effort to prove my theory, I pitched my Chicken and Barley Broth against a number of other ‘offerings’ and to be totally fair to all those soups in the frame, I included a few blind-tasters who rather-relish a good soup!

It was slightly stressful I have to confess but eventually my recipe won hands down! Yes, it takes a little longer to make your own soup and there is the shopping for ingredients involved but there is also the fact that there are scant levels of sugar and salt and the only fats involved are fats that aid nerve, bone, heart, brain and muscle health.

The New Covent Garden Chicken & Barley Nutri Soup came in second (deemed by my tasters to be the best when time is not on your side) but perhaps we should have a quick look at the list of ingredients: Water, Tomato (15%), Onion, Butternut Squash, Carrot, Chicken (5%), Haricot Beans (4%), Tomato Paste, Barley (3%), Celery, Garlic, Salt, Chicken Stock, Sage, Lemon Juice, Thyme, Black Pepper, Chicken Stock contains: Chicken, Yeast Extract, Chicken Fat, Salt, Sugar, Dried Onion, Lemon Juice from Concentrate, Black Pepper, Sage Extract, Rosemary Extract

Not too shabby actually but sugar and salt feature here and there a little too often and there is only 5% chicken - the blind-tasters were more than happy with my goodly amount of chicken!

NOTE TO SELF AND OTHERS: get the soup pot out as often as you can and if time is an issue, keep an eagle eye on the ingredients of ready-made soups. And remember, they are generally listed as ‘most to last’ so if sugar and salt are anywhere in the fist half dozen ingredients, walk away!