Pumpkin Soup For The Soul

I absolutely LOVE fall! It’s my favorite season of all. The colors and flavors of fall is so warming and comforting. Every fall when pumpkins are harvested, I make a delicious flavorful pumpkin soup and it’s healthy too! Yay!

This recipe is very simple. I add how much I want of every ingredient. It’s super flexible and it’s all about enhancing the flavors YOU enjoy, but I’ll add specific quantities for those who are not so sure. All you will need is…

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 medium size pumpkins
• 2 onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• about 8-10 whole cloves
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• low sodium vegetable stock or water
• salt for seasoning
• extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

• Heat the oven to 425 F. Slice the pumpkins in half and remove seeds.
• Lay the pumpkins cut side up in a deep pan.
• Slice the onions in quarters and smash the garlic slightly to release the flavors. Add them to the pan as well.
• Fill the pan with the stock or water about 2 inches high. This will help create steam so the pumpkins will cook all over. Sprinkle the whole cloves, thyme and rosemary. Drizzle some olive oil and season with salt.
• Cook for 1 hour to an 1 hour and half or just until the pumpkins are soft and easily remove from the skin.
• Once cooled, remove the pumpkins from their skins and discard the skins and the whole cloves.
• In a sauce pan, place the peeled pumpkins, onions, garlic and the stock or water.
• With a hand blender or whichever blender you have that works best for you, puree the ingredients until nice, silky and smooth.
• Heat the stove to medium low. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger to the soup. At this point, if you find that the soup is a little on the thicker side, feel free to add more stock or water.
• Bring the soup to a simmer just so all the flavors can marry. This should take about 20 minutes. Now it is ready to serve! I like to garnish the soup with a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds, it adds some crunch to the soup.

BONNE APPETIT!

Tips:

• save the seeds, rinse and let them dry on a sheet pan and roast them with salt
• sometimes I like to add about a spoonful of goat cheese on top of my soup and swirl it in. It just adds that extra dimension of flavors
• feel free to replace some of the liquid with white wine! YUM!
• be creative! I once carved out the center of medium sized pumpkins and served the soup in it. How cute is that!

Tania