Autumn To-Do List
Buy boots. Wear new boots at every waking moment.
Bust out the scarves and go for it. Two at a time? Fine by me!
Make Dad’s Sweet Potato Pie. I know… I’ve been talking about this for ages. I need to shut my trap and get bakin’ already.
Don’t get Swine Flu, that would be seriously lame.
Is it time for flannel sheets? Well.. is the Pope Catholic? Heck yes!
Eat Roasted Pumpkin Soup by the truckload. Do it. Done.
I make a lot of soup. I don’t tell you about half of the soup I make because if you knew, you might make me change the name of this blog to Joy the Soup Maker.
That being said… when I make soups, I usually don’t follow a recipe. Here’s a secret: you can throw just about anything into soup and it’ll be delicious.
Here’s my recipe for pumpkin soup. It’s easy, creamy, and super healthy. Store it in jars in the freezer and put a frozen jar in the fridge in the morning for the evening’s dinner. This recipe is divine with or without the heavy cream. You could also use water instead of vegetable stock, but I love the flavor that a good vegetable stock adds to vegetable soups.
Roasted Pumpkin and Butternut Squash Soup
serves 6 to 8
1 medium pumpkin (perhaps a sugar pumpkin) and 1 medium butternut squash
1 cup leeks
2 small cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
5-6 cups vegetable broth
1/4-1/2 cup cream
2 teaspoons brown sugar
a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut pumpkin and butternut squash into 2-inch chunks, removing the inner seeds and fibrous bits. I roasted my pumpkin and squash with the peel on and removed the cooked flesh from the peel once baked. If you think it’s easier to peel the pumpkin and squash before baking, then go right ahead.
Slice the white flesh up until the green stalks of several leeks. Toss the pumpkin, squash, whole garlic cloves and leeks on a baking tray with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a fork inserted in the flesh of the pumpkin and squash meets no resistance.
Remove from the oven and allow them to rest until cool enough to handle.
When cooled, use a spoon to scoop the cooked flesh away from the squash peel and place in a large saucepan. Add the roasted garlic and leeks to the pan too. Add 3 cups of warm vegetable broth and using a hand blender, blend and breakdown the squash flesh with the broth. If you don’t have a hand blender, blending the chunky soup in a regular blender in batches should work too. Add 2 to 3 more cups of broth and blend until you’ve reached the desired consistency. Add sugar and nutmeg.
Cook soup over medium heat for 30 minutes. Add cream and salt and pepper to taste. Stir. Serve warm.
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I’ve just made this and it was soooo delicious I had to come on here and thank you – thanks again!
Ah! I want to make this so badly. Alas, no blender. :(
Also, you need to start a soup section. Who doesn’t love soup? I’d read it… and buy the book.
joy!
i made dad’s sweet potato pie yesterday with your no roll dough and it’s to die for!
thank you thank you for the deliciousness . & for renewing my hope in my ability to make pie crust . :)
you made it!? AWESOME!!!
Yum I could eat soup every day for lunch and dinner when it is cold out lol
Would a jar be the best vessel for this? I thought glass shouldn’t go in the freezer. That being said, this looks really good.
oooh i don’t know. maybe tupperware? glass shouldn’t go in the freezer? mama never told me that.
I think just in case the soup expands as it freezes and busts the jar? I’ve had to empty my freezer and hunt broken glass in amongst the food too many times after trying to hurriedly chill beer or wine and forgetting, only to open the freezer the next day to find a big alcoholicicle :(
I HAVE managed to freeze food in glass vessels but only by leaving a big gap for expansion. A quick Google search indicates that water expands ~9% on freezing so I guess a bit of guesswork for pumpkin and squash soup may be needed (guessing squared; an incredibly accurate method)!
Either way, I’m making this soup tomorrow morning for a friend who’s stopping by our place in Manchester on his way back down south from Liverpool. We’re in the UK and it is cold, wet, windy, wet and cold. Grey too. A lovely warm orange soup with fresh crusty bread will be just the thing:)
thank you for the awesome site!
S X
I make something similiar but I have bacon in it as well (bacon goes well with everything!).
I just made this tonight and it was soooo goooooood!!!! My only difficulty was that my blender didn’t puree it as smooth as I’d have liked it–did you have this issue too? Doesn’t matter though, my husband already asked with his puppy dog eyes on if we could please please please make it again before pumpkins go out of season, so we’ll definitely be making it again. The flavor is just so dang good! Thank you for posting this!!!
I am wondering, did you add the remainder part(s) of the leeks some point in the recipe or was that an unused portion? I would like to use the whole leek if possible because we don’t use leeks often in our kitchen, and I’d hate for the rest of the green portions to go to waste. :)
Other than that question, I will be making this meal for my family on Christmas Day’s dinner! The biggest dinner I have cooked so far. Wish me luck!
i didn’t add the remaining leeks to the recipe. if you don’t want to waste anything… substitute a small onion, cut into large chunks and roasted along with the squash. does that work for you?
I’m gonna give this a shot let u know how it turns out ……sounds yummy I was thinking of adding crabmeat and a touch of sherry ….
sounds absolutely delicious Pati!
This was wonderful! First time I’ve made Pumpkin and/or Squash soup – and it won’t be the last. In the end, mine didn’t need the sugar, but that is the only thing I changed. Thanks so much for posting it :)
Btw just made the recipe again… This time I needed the sugar- so I suppose it depends on the pumpkin/squash. So wonderful- thanks again!
This sounds incredibly OISHII (this is delicious in Japanese, which is where I am currently and there are loads of pumpkins in season…actually they always seems to be in season in Japan!) Have done something similar before except added quite a lot of cumin and a big scoop of curry powder. It was divine! The spicy flavors really helped to warm us up. I used cream the last time, but will be trying soy milk this time for health purposes. Can’t wait for dinner tonight, thank you for the recipe :)
De-freakin-licious! Thank-you for the wonderful recipe :)
What about adding more ingredients to make it chunky? We ate at a restaurant in Asheville, NC, that added sweet potatoes, a little corn and black beans to make this a chowder- this soup of yours makes a great base for more veggies
sounds good to me!
Hi, I just made the soup but had no leeks, so I put a small onion, added a peeled apple and substituted the sugar for a little maple syrup…since I’m Canadian :) It’s delicious!! Great recipe..thanks!!
I can’t wait to try this recipe. How do you think chicken broth would do in place of the veg.
Thanks
Nicole
i think veggie broth would be wonderful! go for it!
I made this last night and it came out amazing!! Thank you for posting the recipe!!
Do you think green onions would work? Wish I would have looked up recipes BEFORE going to the store… they had leeks… Oh well.
This was delish! Subbed the cream with cashew cream to veganize, and served with black olive baguette. Definitely making it again :)
I couldn’t find a pumpkin, so substituted two sweet dumpling squash (shaped like an acorn squash but with yellow/orange coloring with green flecks). Turned out very nicely, even without the cream, as you said!
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