Roasted Pumpkin Soup
Silky smooth Roasted Pumpkin Soup is blended with fennel, apple and garlic. It's drizzled with syrupy balsamic vinegar and toasty croutons.
Servings: 6.5 cups
Equipment
- 1 high speed blender
- 1 5 quart pot
- 1 cookie sheet
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 tbsp salted butter
- 4 cups roasted pumpkin pumpkin before roasting: roughly 4lb 9 oz
- ⅓ cup shallot small chop
- 1 heaping cup fennel small chop, outer fronds and layers discarded
- ¾ cup Macintosh apple peeled, small chop
- 1 heaping tbsp fresh garlic minced
- ½ ts dry thyme
- ½ ts Kosher salt divided
- 1/8 ts Piment d'Espelette plus more for serving
- 3 cup low sodium vegetable broth
- splash cream or milk
- Syrupy balsamic vinegar for drizzling
Olive Oil Croutons
- 3 large slices Challah cut into 1 inch cubes
- extra virgin olive oil to drizzle/lightly coat
- Kosher salt to sprinkle
Instructions
To Roast Pumpkin:
- Preheat then oven to 410 °F (convention roast if you have it).
- Cut the pumpkin in half and rub it all over with olive oil.
- Put the pumpkin, cut side down, on a cookie sheet and roast it for about 40 minutes, until you can easily stick a fork through the skin and the pumpkin flesh is very tender.
- Remove the pumpkin from the oven and let it cool.
- Using a spoon, removed the pumpkin seeds and discard. Peel away the skin and discard. Place the pumpkin flesh in a bowl and set aside.
To make the soup:
- Heat 2 tablespoons of salted butter in a 5 quart pot over medium heat until shimmering.
- Add the shallots with 1/4 teaspoon of the Kosher salt and sauté for about 5 minutes, until the shallots are translucent and turn golden. Stir often.
- Add the fennel and sauté for 8 minutes, until the fennel has become a deep golden color. Stir often.
- Add the apple and sauté for about 5-8 minutes until the apple has softened and turned slightly golden. Stir often.
- Add the garlic, dry thyme, remainder of the kosher salt, Piment d'Espelette and stir. Cook for less than a minute until garlic and spices are fragrant.
- Add the broth and the pumpkin and stir.
- Bring the soup to a simmer, cover, and let cook for 20 minutes.
- Carefully pour the soup into a high speed blender. Cover with the lid and process, on high, until the soup is fully blended and very silky.
- Add a splash of cream or milk and blend again until fully combined.
- To serve, spoon soup into bowls, drizzle with balsamic, a pinch of Piment d'Espelette, and adorn with olive oil croutons.
For the olive oil croutons:
- Preheat the oven to 400 °F
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cut 3 slices of challah, about 1 inch thick. Stack the slices on top of each other, and cut them into 1 inch cubes.
- Mound the challah cubes on the cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil, perhaps 3 tablespoons. Sprinkle with a little kosher salt, around 1/8 teaspoon, and toss to fully coat the challah cubes. Spread the cubes out on the baking sheet.
- Bake the croutons for about 6 -8 minutes, until lightly golden, then turn them over and cook another 3-5 minutes until browned.
- Remove them from the oven and let them cool.
Notes
If you cannot find a syrupy balsamic vinegar you can of course make your own! Take 1 cup of regular balsamic vinegar in a sauce pan and simmer it and reduce it down (stir it a lot) until it's reduced by a third. There you have it!
Never ever ever use canned pumpkin, which comes with a tin aftertaste and isn't often purely pumpkin. Sometimes it's various squashes like butternut. So go for the real stuff!!