Creamy Pumpkin Soup Recipe

I know that pumpkin soup doesn't really seem "seasonal" in December... but every year after Thanksgiving, I am left with an assortment of pumpkins and gourds that are still good, but no longer useful for decorating since it's now the beginning of the Christmas season....

(I love the light this time of year! When the sun is low on the horizon, it's the best for photography... No wonder the paintings by the Dutch masters are fabulous, the light must be incredible there all the time... but I digress....)

Usually I just leave them laying around on the back porch until they rot because I can't bring myself to throw them out, but I don't quite know what to do with them... This year I decided to actually put them to use and roast them and make some soup.

 Butternut squash- I halved it and scooped out the seeds with a spoon.

This white pumpkin revealed a lovely creamy colored interior....

 This funky, bumpy gourd was extremely hard- I stuck the knife in and I couldn't get it out! I ended up slamming the whole thing against the counter until the gourd split open and released the knife. I don't recommend it- probably very dangerous! But I think your only other option for opening this type of gourd is maybe a chain saw. (Please note- someone just told me that some gourds are poisonous, which I was unaware of. I believe that gourds native to North America are edible- Please do not consume gourds unless you are sure they are edible. I found 2 articles about gourds here and here.)

Finally got it open! Scooped the out the inside of this one too.

Lovely cross section of the "Cinderella" pumpkin- the color on this one was gorgeous and very dense.

Once the insides were scooped out, I placed the pumpkins on a foil lined baking sheet, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled generously with salt.

Next I roasted everything at 400 degrees for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the flesh was tender.

When cool enough to handle, I peeled the skin from the pumpkins. 

Look at that funky yellow gourd now! The skin was still so hard that I couldn't peel it, so I used a spoon to scoop out the cooked flesh. A nice surprise was that the rind held its shape really nicely and make a lovely serving bowl (see first photo).

I placed all of the cooked pumpkin and gourd into a blender in batches. I added a generous amount of chicken broth to the pumpkin in the blender until I was able to puree it.

The color of the puree was incredible... And it made a lot of puree, something like 30 cups. I used some for my soup, and put the rest in containers in the freezer so I can make more soup in the future.

So now... the actual recipe! Making the puree from the pumpkins was quite time consuming, but making the soup itself was really quick and easy. (And now that I have so much puree in the freezer, there will be lots of soup to come...)

Ingredients:

10 cups pumpkin puree

1 T. nutmeg

1 T. curry powder

2 tsp chili powder

2-3 cups water

1 pint lite cream

Additional water, chicken broth, or milk for thinning

Place pumpkin puree, spices, and water in a large pot and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add cream and heat through (do not boil). Add additional liquid for desired consistency.

Serve & enjoy....

Click here for PDF of recipe.

Oh, and those little gourds that didn't make it into the soup? They got sprayed with metallic paint and arranged on the mantle:

What do you do with your pumpkins and gourds after you've finished using them for decorations? Do you just keep them around until they rot? Cook them? Or do you have any other creative ideas for them?