Sunday Night Food Experiment: Pumpkin Soup

A few weekends ago I enjoyed an outstandingly delicious bowl of curried pumpkin soup, donated by Harvest Restaurant, at the MACSAC Empty Bowls Dinner. You may think pumpkin soup sounds weird, gross even, and if you'd have offered anything pumpkin but pie to this meat-n-potatoes Midwestern girl just a few years ago, I'd have told you that I'd sooner eat raw seafood. But the soup was absolutely scrummy, and I've wanted to try to make a similar dish myself ever since I had it.

Using a recipe I found on the blog CAAALO as my template, here goes:

First, gather the ingredients. I used a pie pumpkin, 'cause I don't have one of those strange lookin' Australian ones. I somehow managed to run out of fresh garlic, so I had to use some already chopped from a jar. I also don't have any ground coriander, so I crushed some dried coriander (from my own herb garden).


Peel, slice, chop, and crush, ingredients as necessary.

Next, saute the sliced red onion and garlic,



add the turmeric, coriander, and cumin,



and cook for a few minutes.



I've never cooked with a real pumpkin before (jack-o'-lanterns' baked pumpkin seeds don't count). How do you peel one? With a regular vegetable peeler, of course!



Pumpkin everywhere! Pumpkin cubed for the soup, pumpkin seeds to bake, and pumpkin scraps for the composter.



It's time to add the cubed pumpkin, chicken broth, and lentils to the onion, garlic, and spices,



bring it all to a boil,



then simmer for about 1/2 hour.



Almost done now. Tomorrow we'll have soup for dinner! Stay tuned for the results...

Cheers,
Barb