Roasted Pumpkin Soup

With all of the fall festivities, take the chance to get some “real” pumpkins! You know, pumpkins you can actually eat, that were meant for a pumpkin pie, and savory recipes like this delicious roasted pumpkin soup. I had several of these decorating my kitchen, staring at me every time I walked by. “Cook me, you are running out of time!”. So I started the roasting process.

Roasting naturally brings out the sweetness and flavor of the pumpkin. Make sure you are not using the large, overbearing kind we carve for Halloween but the small, sweet pumpkins commonly used for all sorts of pies, soups, pancakes, anything really. If you aren’t ready to create something you can always store the roasted pumpkin in the freezer for later use. I like to put it in an ice cube tray for a day. As soon as it is frozen, pop them out into a plastic freezer bag and store for serving size pumpkin to put into sauces, soups, bread, pancakes. I keep throwing that word pancake around. Sounds like pancakes will be on the menu soon!

Back to the soup! This was going to be a meal for four so I wanted to give it a little bit of substance and protein to be complete and keep little bellies full until bedtime. So, I topped it with homemade pancetta wrapped croutons and fried sage with a sage brown butter. I’m a bit of a foodie and nothing goes without some fancy sauce around here. My kids have no idea how flavorful, spiced and quite often exotic their food is. What a surprise it will be as they grow older and eat away from home!

Now, don’t let the picture fool you, I had a pile of those homemade hearty pancetta croutons on mine. It was like a cracked-out crouton binge in everyone’s bowl. They were out-of-control addictive. I didn’t want to seem so indulgent on our first pumpkin soup post together so you only get two in the picture! The whole bowl felt sinful while I had to keep reminding myself it was incredibly healthy, full of fiber and vitamins and actually was filling. Best part of all, everyone ate every drop. This will be a fall and winter staple we will all look forward to!

I digress, the recipe!…Start by roasting the pumpkins. Cut the pumpkins in half, throw away seeds and middle. On a baking sheet add a bit of water and set the pumpkins face down in the water. I placed the pumpkins in the oven and let them bake at 425 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes.

After the pumpkins are done roasting flip them upside down and remove any middle excess. With a large spoon remove inner pumpkin. It should be nice and soft and easily removable. Place the insides in a food processor.

Use 4 ounces of pancetta with five large loaves of bread. Cut bread in small squares. Wrap pancetta around croutons and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for twenty minutes or until crispy.

 

 

 

 

 

Combine onions and a carrots in a pot and cook until soft, add apples towards end. Once all vegetables and fruit in pot are soft add in pumpkin. Pour all ingredients into a large food processor and puree.

 

 

 

 

 

Fry the sage for twenty seconds on each side in a decent amount of butter so you will have enough leftover butter to pour on top of your soup.

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