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.
Jessica Taylor
Looks YUMMY! Can’t wait to try it.
Julia
I’m on such a soup kick… this sounds delicious! I wonder… would it be good with curry? I had the most amazing curried pumpkin and squash soup once.
Caroline Smardenkas
Yes I too was wondering if curry would go well with this dish.
Can’t wait to try this soup out, we are all soupies in my family.
nita scot
Just ate butternut squash soup for lunch but the addition of pumpkin sounds divine. Looking forward to the sweet potato pie recipe as well :)
sandi
It is pumpkin soup season even down south. I’ll take a slice of that sweet potatoe pie too.
Kylie of Thin Crust, Deep Dish
So I just made a really similar soup this weekend for company. Instead of sugar I added 1/4 cup of fresh apple cider…so good. I also sauteed an apple and some sage and threw that in. Oh, and then on top I crumbled a bit of bacon and fried a sage leaf for garnish. That stuff made it especially special and fall-ey. Yay for fall!
Esther
This looks so yummy! I have always wanted to make pumpkin soup. We will be trying this recipe for sure.
The DeL Sisters
Megan
Ooh! This soup would go perfect with my fall boots!
Julie
Mmmm so perfect for the cold, rainy day outside right now.
ABowlOfMush
This sounds like my dream soup! Yum!
Laura
Oh this looks so good!! Soup and fall go so well together, and this might be the first one of the season I make!
Libby
Yummm! I just made my own pumpkin puree this past weekend and it was super easy. This soup looks great! I bet the flavors of the pumpkin and squash compliment each other perfectly :)
Errin
There isn’t a lot that I find to be redeeming qualities for the winter months of the northwest…however clothes and food (especially soups) make the short list. You should definitely pot more soups. We will still visit you. :)
Jessica @ How Sweet It Is
And I CAN’T WAIT for the sweet potato pie recipe..I hope it makes it’s debut soon!
Jessica @ How Sweet It Is
OH yum! It is so chilly here in Pittsburgh and this will be PERFECT. Even just the roasted veggies are great, I bet.