The taste of autumn - Pumpkin soup
These decorative gourds are not edible but make a lovely autumnal decoration.
October is the month of pumpkins! Many delicious dishes can be made out of these giant berries (yes, botanically, pumpkins are berries). My favorite pumpkin dish is pumpkin soup. Usually, I cook a large amount of soup at one time, portion and freeze it so that I can enjoy homemade pumpkin soup throughout the whole winter. Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes. Therefore, in this recipe I am not going to give any weight specifications but proportions of the other ingredients in relation to the amount of pumpkin. My favorite pumpkin for soup is butternut but any other pumpkin works fine too.
Firstly, I prepare the pumpkin and the other vegetables. I peel the pumpkin with a peeler. It is much easier with a peeler than with a knife, just go over the skin a few times to take it all off. I cut the pumpkin in pieces and remove the seeds. You might use the insides of the pumpkin you carved for your Halloween decoration. I peel and cut some potatoes, about ¼ of the amount of the pumpkin. Potatoes help to thicken the soup and give it a lovely creamy texture. I add the same amount of carrots, which I cut in smaller pieces than the potatoes and the pumpkin (because it takes them longer to cook). Carrots give some extra taste and give the soup a nice deep orange color.
The soup gets extra tasty with a bit of sweet cream and chive.
I place all the vegetables in a big pan and fill it up with water so that the veggies at the top stick a bit out of the water like little icebergs. I pay attention to how much water I fill in the pan and add chicken broth according to the amount of water. With vegetable broth, the soup will be perfect for vegans! I boil the veggies until they are nice and soft or even start falling apart. I purée the veggies with my blender until the soup has a smooth and creamy texture. Usually, there is no need to put more salt into the soup. I add more salt and other spices such as pepper, nutmeg or curry just before I eat it, not when I portion and freeze the soup. In this case, I season it after defrosting. Usually, the soup gets saltier when freezing.
Right before serving I add either a bit of sweet cream or sour cream to the pumpkin soup and I sprinkle chive, parsley, roasted pumpkin seed or crunchy bacon cubes or all together on top of the soup. Together with a piece of my crunchy baguettes, this pumpkin soup is the perfect dinner on foggy autumn nights!