We spent the week in sunny Texas, but got home yesterday to dreary drizzle. Blech. Luckily, we had fun brunch plans and all the ingredients for a steamy soup ready for today. There’s really nothing better, in my opinion, than a warm bowl between your hands on a dark winter night. Even better if the contents of that bowl are sprinkled with bacon.
This recipe comes from a great book called Art of the Slow Cooker, which we use pretty often. I substituted a few ingredients to stay within the Dark Days SOLE requirements and made a few other modifications to make my life easier. It is deliciously creamy and satisfying, but pretty healthy and quick to make.
My slow cookerwas indispensible for this soup. I used it to make the vegetable stock a few weeks ago, which I froze, to cook the pumpkin overnight last night, and to make the soup this afternoon. If you don’t have a slow cooker, you could make the stock and soup in a heavy pot on the stove and follow the oven roasting method for cooking the pumpkin.
Ingredients:
Amount | Ingredient | Preparation | Where we bought it (* Union Square Greenmarket) |
---|---|---|---|
1 TBsp | butter | Ronnybrook Farm * | |
1 large (8-12 ounces) | yellow onion | chopped | S&SO * |
3 cloves | garlic | chopped | Keith’s Farm * |
4-5 cups | pumpkin flesh (from a 5-6 pound pumpkin) | cooked, but no need to puree or drain | Oak Grove Plantation * |
2 quarts | vegetable broth | Various * | |
1/8 tsp | ground nutmeg | ||
1 tsp | kosher salt | ||
1/2 tsp | pepper | freshly ground | |
1/2 cup | half & half | Milk Thistle Farm * | |
1/2 cup | cheese, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano or something smoked | grated | Cato Corner Farm (We used their Aged Bloomsbury) * |
2 TBsp | fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley (optional garnish) | chopped | Keith’s Farm * |
2-3 strips | bacon (optional garnish) | sliced into short strips and cooked until crispy | Oak Grove Plantation * |
1/2 cup | nuts (optional garnish) | toasted and chopped |
Directions:
- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven.
- Add the onion and saute over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook briefly.
Note: The onion is dark in the photo above because we crisped the bacon first and then used the same pot for the onion to add a little exta bacon-y flavor. This is a good method if you want to garnish with bacon, but it’s not necessary. - Stir in the pumpkin, broth, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil.
- Transfer to a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker and cook on low for about 8 hours (or high for about 4).
Be careful when pouring the soup into the crock. It splashes! - Just before eating, add the half and half and cheese and use an immersion blenderto puree the soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a blender, but be very careful. Blending hot liquid can lead to an explosion, so please let it cool down for some time before you blend.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the parsley and bacon or toasted nuts, if desired.
Any leftovers can be frozen. We served this with homemade crackers.
[...] Erik and Lindsay at EatLocal365 pop up with a pair of seasonally-inspired dishes: Week 1 featured a gratin of root vegetables and leafy greens enriched with Gruyere cheese, and for week 2 they went the soup route, with a warming bowl of pumpkin bisque. [...]