Finally cooling of here on the prairie
Last edited Tue Nov 20, 2018, 04:57 AM - Edit history (3)
Took long enough - It was 94 Saturday
But Autumn is here at last and there are 2 dishes that I absolutely love to make in the fall:
Pumpkin soup and Chili.
Today I'm talking pumpkin soup.
First off, you can use any orange fleshed squash and it'll work out about the same - It won't taste exactly the same, but it cooks the same way and serves the same purpose. A warm satisfying bowl of savory soup that's creamy and filling.
Second point that needs made is this - If it looks perfect for a Jack O' Lantern it will probably suck as soup.
The flesh in field pumpkins can be stringy or mealy when cooked and since they have a lot of water content, they make a less flavorful soup.
So, choose a Sugar Pumpkin (the small greyish kind) or use what I always use - Kabocha.
https://www.thekitchn.com/kabocha-squash-pumpkins-sweeter-cousin-ingredient-intelligence-57871
They are slightly sweet, the flesh cooks out smoother and they are denser than other pumpkins.
My wife is Asian so we make the trek into the city once a month to shop at the big Asian markets, and there are Kabocha in the produce department year round.
But that doesn't matter since the local big grocery chain carries them as well.
So, good news! They aren't as common as butternut or acorn squash but they do seem to be available in most areas if ya look.
The final point I have - LEAVE THE NUTMEG AND CINNAMON IN THE PANTRY.
I ain't here to bitch about all the "Pumpkin Pie Spice" (PPS in my mind, I don't want to even dignify it with a proper name) flavored everything in the world.
I mean I do hate that crap, but I'm not writing this to rant about it.
This is soup. That's my point.
This is not PIE
When all you PPS addicted folks start adding roasted garlic and onions to your PPS lattes, I will allow you to put the nutmeg and whatnot into the soup.
Not a second before that though. Clear?
Good.
On to the recipe proper...
Preheat the oven to 400
While it's coming to temp, cut a medium sized Kabocha into quarters. Remove and save the seeds
On a roasting pan, oil the sections and salt and pepper them
(I lightly salt and heavily pepper the squash before roasting since I will also salt the onions and garlic as they cook down and would rather be less salty than too salty at the end - it's soup so you can hit it with a dash of salt at the end, but you can't pull it out.)
Place them skin side up on the pan and roast for at least 40 minutes after that, check every 5 minutes and pull when soft. I usually turn them flesh side up for the last 10 minutes just to get some extra color.
While the pumpkin's in the oven dice one large yellow onion and mince 4 large cloves of garlic.
In a large stock pot, sauté until translucent in whatever fat you like best. I use half butter and half bacon drippings. Olive oil is ok too and I guess plain old oil would work (if you wanna shoot for the most boring ass soup possible)
When the onions are almost see through lower the heat and add a quart of stock, home made salt free chicken or veggie stock is best, the low sodium cartons of store brand stock will work and of course the folks who sauté in canola oil can use water.
HEY! Did you pull the pumpkins out and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes yet?
You should do that while the vegies are on a slow low simmer, maybe loosely tent with foil if you have a mind to.
When the kabocha is still hot but no longer a threat to give you scars, scoop the flesh out add to the soup pot then add some more stock to cover.
Whip out that immersion blender you got for Christmas 7 years ago (and hardly ever use) turn up the flame to medium high and go to town breaking down all the veg while adding small amounts of stock as you go to keep it moving.
ETA: Don't let the soup get too cool or too hot as you process it.
Keep the burner going and work the stock in in batches.
It's not a sauce but if you cool it and reheat it too many times or over heat it, it can "break" the way any sauce or gravy made with a mixture of fat and starch can.
So no rolling boils and no rapid drops in temperature if you please
Now here is an important decision point - How thick do you want this?
You can make it the consistency of hummus or as thin as tomato soup or any where in that spectrum. Add stock until it's the soup you want, no, until it's THE SOUP YOU NEED!
Check seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.
Believe it or not you are done, or at least you can be done - many folks finish this soup in the bowl with a shot of cream or a chunk of butter. I've heard of people using sour cream too - which sounds good...
You could also sprinkle it with the seeds that you roasted, lightly salted, for 4 minutes or so (turning once halfway through) right after you turned off the oven.
When my carpal tunnel syndrome calms down from this post, I may write up the "how to make chili" novel I've always dreamed of publishing.
Peace
= new reply since forum marked as read
thank you!!!! I never cared for squash as a child, so I never tried "pumpkin soup" until a few years ago on a trip to Germany of all places. It was great. So last year, I saw some prepared pumpkin soup in the deli at Safeway and thought to myself...hmmmm that might be tasty. OMG 
pumpkin pie is OK for Thanksgiving, but I don't want that crap in my coffee, my beer, or my soup!
