Pumpkin Soup

I was in the mood for some soup today. I had a pumpkin on my kitchen counter. And thus, the pumpkin was turned into a soup. How? Read on...

Ingredients:
Pumpkin - cleaned and peeled and cut into cubes about 1 3/4 pounds (Yes, I weighed them after cleaning)
Apple - 1 peeled, cored and diced
Carrots - 2 medium peeled and sliced
Red Onion - 2 small or 1 medium chopped
Olive Oil - 3 TBSP
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste (I used about 1 TBSP of pepper corn coarsely crushed)
Cayanne Pepper - 1 tsp
Rosemary - 1 tsp dried
Basil - 1 tsp dried
Sour cream or yogurt - 1/2 cup (optional)
Bay Leaf - 1
Water or Vegetable broth - 4 1/2 - 5 cups divided use

Garnish:
Sweetened dried cranberries

Method:
In a pan, heat oil. When hot, add the bay leaf. When the bay leaf gets toasted, add onions. Sprinkle some salt and let it wilt. When the onions are cooked, add pumpkin, carrot, apple and stir. Add some pepper and about 3 cups of water or vegetable broth. Cover with a lid and let them all get cooked. When they are cooked through, turn off the heat. When they have cooled down a bit, remove the bay leaf and discard it. Blend the veggie mixture either with an immersion blender or a regular blender. You could even use a food processor for this job.

Transfer the pureed vegetable mixture back into the pot. Add remaining water or vegetable broth, yogurt or sour cream, cayanne pepper, more black pepper powder to taste. Adjust the salt if needed. Take dried basil and rosemary and crush them on your palm and add to the soup. Bring it to a simmer and adjust the thickness as per your taste. I like my soups creamy and thick. Serve warm with either bread toast, croutons or crackers. I just served with a garnish of sweetened dried cranberries.

Notes:
You could use milk in place of yogurt or sour cream. You could change the herbs to herbs of your choice. You could add some nutmeg and all spice to it.

Enjoy. Pin It