Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Soup Recipe

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It's officially fall season and that means it's time to eat soups and hearty dishes of big slabs of meat, accompanied by roasted root vegetables. Sounds delicious right? It's also the time of selling pumpkins, especially in North America where you see them literally everywhere.

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I usually only buy pumpkins to make a Jack-o-lantern for Halloween. I've never really cooked with them let alone made pumpkin soup from one. But this year I thought that I give it a go and see how it turns out. I bought a small pie making pumpkin from the grocery store and went to work turning it into a hearty soup fit for the fall season.

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For scale you see it here next to some other squashes, accorn and butternut. Actually, with just some minor adjustments, this recipe could also be used to make butternut squash soup. All you would have to do is substitute the pumpkin for the squash and you are basically on your way. Now let's begin.

Ingredients


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• 1 Pie Pumpkin
• 1 Large Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 1 Quart of Chicken Broth (or bone broth)

Spices: I wanted this soup to taste like pumpkin spice and I found that this combination of spices worked extremely well for that. The soup smelled just like a pumpkin pie in the end and had a similar taste to it, though not as sweet.

• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp Ginger
• Cloves (use sparingly)

• 1/4 tsp Tumeric (Optional just for color really)
• 1 Boullion cube (if necessary)
• 1-2 Tbsp Honey
• 1/2-1 tsp The Secret Ingredient
• Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish with cream and/or creme fraiche/sour cream and pumpkin seeds if you have any.

Directions


Start by quartering the pumpkin and removing the seeds. Do not remove the skin at this time.

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Roast the pumpkin in the oven around 175°C (350°F) for 30 minutes or until soft and cooked through. Note: Ovens temperatures vary. Our Canadian oven is a lot hotter than our oven was in France so adjust accordingly to get a medium or hot heat.

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While the pumpkin is roasting, chop the onion and saute it in oil or butter until translucent.

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Chop the carrot and add it to the onions.

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Put together your spice blend. You can premake this or add it directly to the pot as you go.

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I like to add the spices somewhat early to any dish to give them time to release their oils. I typically follow thevprinciple of spices early in cooking and herbs late. In general, spices gain flavor the longer they are cooked while herbs lose flavor.

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The ginger makes the soup a little spicy so you can add more if you like your soup on the spicier side or less if you like it to be a little milder. You can also adjust any of the other spices to your personal preference as well. I added a little more cinnamon by the end.

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As a general tip I would start small with the cloves since they have a very strong flavor. I used 3 cloves and only used the heads, since they grind up much finer than the stems. You could add more if you want clove to be a more dominant flavor but again, I would start with only a little and see how it tastes.

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When the pumpkin is done roasting, remove it from the oven and put it into your pot. It's actually easier to just peel the skin away then to scoop it out with a spoon. Add the chicken broth and blend everything together with a hand mixer.

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I found the soup to be very bitter at this point. I didn't realize how bitter pumpkins were, so I added 1-2 tbsp of honey to balance the bitterness with a little sweetness. This is another instance where you want to start small and ad more as you go. I also added part of a chicken boullion cube for more flavor along with some salt.

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The trick to sharing any recipe is always to trick the person that you're sharing it with. You always want to withhold one ingredient or more so that their version of the dish tastes slightly worse than yours. You really want them to say something like "It never turns out as good as when you make it."

I'm actually going to share the secret ingredient with you here though because you and I are never going to be serving the same food to the same people. The secret ingredient is vanilla.

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I started by adding 1/2 a tsp of vanilla and then trying it to see how it tasted. A little later I added one more 1/2 tsp and thought that it was enough. I wanted a subtle taste of vanilla so that people would be able to taste and smell it without actually knowing what they were tasting and smelling. Subtlety is key in that regard.

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Garnish the soup with cream and/or creme fraiche to add a smooth creaminess to the soup and to make it look a little more interesting. You could add roasted pumpkin seeds as well if you have them - I didn't.

Conclusion


This recipe was a bit of an experiment for me since I've never actually cooked with pumpkin nor made soup from one. I found it to be much more bitter than I was expecting. Personally, I would prefer to make butternut squash soup using this same recipe and spice blend, but overall I found the pumpkin to be a somewhat interesting alternative. I would say that the experiment was a success. Good luck and happy cooking!

Well thats it for now. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

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If your pumpkin tastes bitter, you are supposed to use a mixture of butter/olive oil to smooth out the taste.

Vanilla? Darn! I would never have guessed!

The secret ingrdient! How dastardly! :)

Someone else mentioned butter as well. I wasn't aware of that trick. That's good to know. Thanks.

Yeah vanilla for this pumpkin spice version.
I read that curry goes well with pumpkin as well but I wouldn't add vanilla if I went the curry route.

Perish THAT thought! :)

Yeah bro you're right, using honey is the trick, I do the same with bitter tomato purée! I am learning from your section that butter works? But you added creme fraiche, it's pretty much serving the same purpose. Coconut milk could also be great with it.

Man if I could, I would send you a bunch of pumpkins!

But you added creme fraiche, it's pretty much serving the same purpose.

Yeah that's true I suppose. It's another fat similar to butter or oil. Yeah coconut would also be similar.

I'd take the pumpkins but it's a far way to ship them haha

Vanilla!?! WTFUNKZ! Heathen.

I would substitute a finely chopped chilli in instead 😀😀

Looks good though!

You don't like vanilla?
Well that would ruin it for you then haha
Another way to spice it would be curry instead of the pumpkin spice. Chili would go great with that. That might be more your style

You are quite the chef, aren't you?

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This looks pretty amazing... I'm a pumpkin soup lover, but I think butternut squash would be awesome too.

... the secret ingredient is what you normally least expect 🙌

Haha that's funny.
Yeah I think I prefer butternut squash but the pumpkin was a nice alternative. Something different.

the secret ingredient is what you normally least expect

Yeah. That's very true.

If you'd substituted with squash, would it take care of the bitterness? Your soup looks great. You write like a chef. 😃😃

Our Canadian oven is a lot hotter than our oven was in France

Why? Is the temperature scale different in the two countries?

If you'd substituted with squash, would it take care of the bitterness?

Yes I believe so. I make butternut squash soup often enough and I never find it to be bitter.

The temperature scales on the ovens were similar but our oven in Canada is larger and heats up quicker and can be set to higher temperatures. In France I cooked everything at 240C and it took forever to cook anything. I usually set the oven to 175C here at home in Canada and things cook faster and will burn if I'm not careful. The oven I had in France was smaller and a much cheaper model - an Ikea brand I think. So it just wasn't as good

🤷‍♂️

This looks amazinnngggg...As for the bitter taste I saw somewhere that you can correct that with butter not sure though.

Hmm that's interesting. I didn't know that. I'll keep it in mind for the future.
Salt will eliminate some bitterness as well.

Ooh. Alright

Those pumpkins look so pretty that they don't make you want to cut them, I will save your recipe it looks delicious.

Yeah small pumpkins have a sort of cuteness to them haha

yum what a great recipe for this time of year

tis the season 😋😄