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.
Jackie
This was the only recipe that peaked my interest. I made it and loved it! So did my boyfriend. Freezing leftovers was just as good! I drizzled a bit of truffle oil on top before serving and it was great. My boyfriend suggested a dollop of ricotta would have been a nice final touch as well. I will try that next time! Thanks for the recipe Joy, you are awesome!
Garcey
Ive tried this and paired it with fried prawn in garlic and butter match made to heaven thanks for sharing, ops i add 2 tablespoon of napoletana sauce instead of roasting i boiled it and instead of vegetable broth i use the soup from boiling it turns out really really great my husband likes it thanks again..
Wendy Brunson
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!
Christaface
This was delish! Subbed the cream with cashew cream to veganize, and served with black olive baguette. Definitely making it again :)
paoli
Do you think green onions would work? Wish I would have looked up recipes BEFORE going to the store… they had leeks… Oh well.
Veronica
I made this last night and it came out amazing!! Thank you for posting the recipe!!