Steam 1 pumpkin whole for 10 minutes on trivet / steam rack with 500 ml water underneath, leave it a while on NPR if you need to or do a QPR. This is the exact method to pressure cook a whole pumpkin if you need further instructions.
Once it's cool enough to handle, remove stalk and seeds. Reserve or discard the seeds. Slice into chunks, you can peel it if you want but I don't.
Coat inner pot of Ninja 14 in 1, Ninja 9 in 1, Instant Pot Duo Crisp or Instant Pro Crisp with oil. I use about 1 teaspoon olive oil and a silicone brush to spread it evenly over the bottom of the inner pot and some up the sides. Alternatively, add to your standalone air fryer or roast in the oven.
Add the chunks of pumpkin with 1 teaspoon olive oil and about ¼ teaspoon sea salt and stir to coat well.
Air fry 20 minutes at 210℃ / 410℉ (or even higher if your air fryer goes higher).
With 5 minutes to go, add ½ onion, chopped, and ½ celery, finely chopped, plus 1 small carrot, sliced.
After air frying time, add 350 ml of water or stock (this is 1.5 US cups) (I used water and a tablespoon of vegetable stock paste), ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon Baharat spice mix, ½ teaspoon fish sauce, blend with 1 handful fresh coriander / cilantro (stalks included) and juice of 1 lime.
Pressure cook, high pressure, for 3 minutes QPR or NPR or leave on Warm for as long as you need to. You could of course choose to slow cook anywhere between 1-3 hours on high or low, depends on how your day is going. It's soup and you're going to blend it so extra time won't ruin it. You choose whatever suits you best.
When you're ready to eat, blend with the coriander and lime and serve. Add extra stock to thin it out if necessary but don't be tempted to do it before blending, as you don't want it too thin.