It is pumpkin season, they are everywhere you turn...let's prepare soup of course. I even took the liberty of embellishing this soup for Halloween by creating a spider web design out of Greek yogurt (an excellent tactic to intice children to eat veggies...decoration). I combined curry, coriander, ginger, and cayenne to assist in cutting down the natural sweetness of the pumpkin. A warmness was generated by sauteing onions and garlic as a flavor base. For texture I diced focaccia into cubes and sauted the cubed bread in olive oil and sea salt for a crunchy crouton topping. If you are arranging this soup for a party, preceding serving you may place the hot soup into a hollowed pumpkin and utilize it as a serving dish. Another trick is to hollow a small pumpkin, prepare the croutons and position a bowl in the pumpkin opening with the croutons. Prior to putting the food in the pumpkins you could decorate the outside with flat black push-pins or black craft paint. These establish an adorable centerpiece.
Warm Pumpkin Soup
1
average sized pumpkin, deseeded and cut
into chunks
2-3
smaller potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1
medium sized onion, chopped
2
cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tsp
of curry powder
1 tsp
of ground coriander
1 inch
fresh grated ginger
1/4 tsp
of ground cinnamon
Dash of
cayenne
6 cups
of chicken or vegetable stock
Olive
oil
Salt
and pepper
Focaccia bread
for croutons
Greek
yogurt for garnish
In a large saucepan, on
medium heat, gently saute 3 tbsp of olive oil with the chopped onions until
soft.
Add the pumpkin,
potatoes, garlic and the spices. Saute for about 10 minutes or until everything
is starting to brown. Pour in stock (Begin by just covering the top of the
pumpkin with the stock, you can add more later if you feel it is too thick)
bring to a boil, cover and simmer until the pumpkin and potatoes are tender and
soft, about 10-12 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the pumpkin
and potatoes until smooth and creamy. Here is where you can add more stock if
you like, depending on how thick you like your soup. Add salt and pepper to
taste.
Cut the focaccia into
cubes, or any crusty bread you have. Saute over medium heat in olive oil until
crispy, season with sea salt. Use as a garnish for the soup along with Greek yogurt.
Until tomorrow...Peace.
How sweet - it looks like butterscotch pudding.
ReplyDeleteI love the decoration. Never have had pumpkin soup, but love the pie.