Happy Halloween out there! Did you know that the word comes from All-Hallows-Eve, referring to the Christian Holiday All Saints' Day on Nov. 1st? You probably did.

Living in Europe, I'm not familiar with trick-or-treating and I didn't grew up carving pumpkins. I always thought that it was just this great American Holiday. Imagine my surprise, when my father-in-law told us that they used to carve lanters out of sugar beets when he was a little boy. So I did some research, learning that scary veggies have a long tradition (probably with a celtic origin).

Look at this.

Inspired like this and just to be on the safe side (ghost-wise), we created Mr. Leek and horned pumpkin to guard us. If nothing else, they make for one delicious vegan pumpkin soup with ginger and pepper.

Just take the pumpkin pulp, some potatoes, an onion, a little bit of ginger, chilli pepper or whatever you find in your kitchen. Stir-fry everything with a generous amount of curry (because curry has to get warm) before adding water until everything is nicely covered. Use some salt and vegetable stock to spice it up. Now give it some time (depending on your veggies 20 - 30 minutes) before blending everything until you have a nice and smooth soup. Add some soy cream (or real cream, if you're a vegetarian) and a little bit of pumpkin seed oil.

Yum!