Delish Pumpkin Soup

After going to the Farmer's Market on Monday and Rich's Farm today (to pick out pumpkins), I found myself with lots of fresh vegetables! Today, I thought I would make a big batch of soup and freeze the left-overs. After much debate, Angelo helped me to decide which soup to make by picking up a pumpkin at least 3 times and saying "Can we make pumpkin soup?" Well, pumpkin soup it was!

I adapted this recipe from Ultimate Vegetarian (Parragon Publishing 2003) (Here is a picture of what the book's soup looks like. Mine didn't photograph well ...):

I doubled the recipe. This fed two adults and a toddler tonight and looks like we have enough for two more dinners (for all of us) and a lunch (for one of us- maybe enough for Angelo and I to share).

About 6 lbs. of "pie pumpkin" (one medium small and one small)

4 small or 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

About 6 TBSP of butter (you could use olive oil)

1 1/2 medium Onions

About 3 cloves garlic

About 7 cups vegetable stock (or at least 4 cups veg stock plus the remaining amount in water)

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp orange zest (I used a tiny grater instead of a zester) (optional)

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

1. peel, remove seeds and cut pumpkin into 1 in. cubes

2. melt butter in large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. add onion and garlic an fry over low heat until soft but not colored.

3. add pumpkin and carrots and toss with onion 2-3 min.

4. add stock and bring to boil over med. heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add ginger, lemon juice, orange zest, bay leaves and cover and simmer over low heat for about 20 min., until pumpkin is tender.

5. Calls for discarding orange zest, if using, but what I used was so small, I left it in. Discard bay leaves. Cool soup slightly then press through a strainer or process in a food processor until smooth. ... so they say. I used a potato smasher and just smashed in the pot until I got a consistency I liked and it was really easy and pretty fast. No transferring from pot to food processor and back again.

I served it over garlic rice (recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking):

2 cups long grain rice

6 cloves garlic, lightly mashed and peeled

5 TBS olive oil

1 tsp salt

wash rice in several changes of water. drain. soak rice in 6 cups water for 1/2 water. drain thoroughly.

heat oil in heavy 2 quart pot over med. flame. when hot, put in garlic. stir and fry until garlic turns med brown color. add rice and salt. stir and fry another minute. add 2 3/4 cups water and bring to a boil. cover tightly, turn heat to very, very low and cook gently for 25 minutes.

I also have a pot of vegetable stock cooling on the stove, using the peels, ends and greens from this soup. It is so easy to make! Try it and you'll never buy pre-made veggie stock again!