Pumpkin Ginger Soup 10/31/2009

Another week, another Saturday soup.  And what else to make on Halloween but Pumpkin Soup.  I have a recipe for a Curry Pumpkin Soup, but I wanted to try something a bit different and I wanted to use a real pumpkin instead of the canned puree.  So here goes with this week's recipe.

2 Tbls butter
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thin
1 medium pumpkin or 6 c. pumpkin puree
1 box of chicken broth
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cloves and add more nutmeg)
Fresh nutmeg, several passes on the grater
salt
pepper
1 c. cream or half and half

Cut pumpkin in half, remove the stem and seeds.  Place skin side down in a roasting pan, put in 1-2 inches of water, cover with foil bake at 300 until tender.

Saute onion, red pepper in butter.  Add garlic and ginger after the onions and red pepper have softened. Let the whole mixture saute to bring out the flavors.  Add salt and pepper, just under 1/2 tsp each.

Add pumpkin and chicken broth.  Let simmer about 30 minutes.  (I tend to let the soup simmer while I finish other things on my list, sometimes it is 30 minutes, other times it is up to 1 hour).

Puree the soup with a hand blender or in batches with a food processor or blender.

Add the pumpkin pie spice, freshly grated nutmeg and more salt and pepper to taste.

Stir in the cream, heat until the cream gets warmed up.

We served the soup with some sun dried tomato and chicken sausage, just a little spicy, but good.

This one turned out well.  Patrick suggests serving next time with grilled cheese sandwiches.