Welcome to the third post in the “use it all” series! In the last post, I made pumpkin (guts) and raisin muffins. This soothing pumpkin soup with cremini mushrooms, curry, and nutmeg will warm the cockles even on the chilliest of days!
Making this one was a no-brainer because it uses ingredients I already have on hand. Score! Seriously, who wants to have to go to the grocery store to get one or two (or more) ingredients needed to make a specific dish? Not me. While I used raw puréed pumpkin for the muffins, I decided to bake the remainder of the pumpkin guts in anticipation of freezing some for later. Baking it also allowed me to drain off some of the moisture – a considerable amount (and our resident canine food critics have been enjoying it on their meals).
The recipe is straightforward: brown the chopped onions and mushrooms in butter, then add flour and curry powder and stir for five minutes. The remaining ingredients are added. Here’s where I diverged from the instructions: I chose not to purée the soup prior to adding the heavy cream (three cups of creamy goodness!). If you’re the fancy dinner party sort, you’ll probably want to proceed with the puréeing, but I like my soup chunky; the beefy mushrooms add a truly meaty texture that you can really sink your teeth into.
And the flavor: if you’re experiencing fall weather-induced food ennui, this may the dish that breaks you out of your funk. It’s so deliciously different, hearty, and comforting: hygge in a bowl? We paired it with some homemade sourdough toast and left the table with smiles on our faces. It’s that good.
This recipe makes a lot of soup – we ended up with two full quart jars of leftovers, as well as a third quart jar that was about 2/3 full. Fortunately, I can easily imagine eating the soup every day until it’s gone, so it’s a good “problem” to have!
Vegetarian/vegan ideas: since the recipe incorporates curry flavors, I think this soup would naturally lend itself to subbing full fat coconut milk for the heavy cream and vegetable oil could be substituted for the butter. The recipe also suggests subbing vegetable stock for chicken.