Pumpkin Soup With Bacon

On my quest to reduce waste and reuse items, I really wanted to create something delicious out of our Halloween jack-o-lanterns this year. I wasn’t in the mood for a loaf or pie, so I started diving into the soup realms. I researched a bunch of recipes and kind of made up the following… Apologies that I’m not a “textbook chef”. 😉 This post exists mostly so that I can easily find this “recipe” and make it again.

First, I chopped our jack-o-lanterns in half, top to bottom (I had already removed the seeds, strings, and stems). Then I cooked the pumpkins at 425 degrees F for 45 minutes, skin side up. (I used a silicon mat on a baking sheet for easier clean up.) Once cool, I peeled the blistered skin off… and collected the “meat”. At this point, I set aside one of the cooked pumpkins for future use by bagging 2 C at at time, and then segmenting the bags before freezing.

Meanwhile, I cooked up some bacon and drained it on paper towel. I used low sodium bacon and reserved 2 tbsp of the bacon grease.

Then, I chopped up some onion and sautéed it in that bacon grease. I used a medium sized yellow onion, but you can adjust to your tastes. When the onion was soft and translucent, I added minced garlic. Again, I did 3 crushed cloves, but you do you! I cooked it all about a minute more and set it aside.

Next, I used our standard blender to combine it all in batches. I filled the blender about 3/4 full of pumpkin and poured in just enough soup stock that it would blend (we had chicken, so that’s what I used). I added a spoon of the onion/garlic/grease mix and blended again. Then I poured it into my soup pot, and did a couple more batches… which only used about 1/2 of the other pumpkin!

Update: I got an immersion blender for Christmas! Which works wonders for making fast, blended soups. I just made a new batch by putting the thawed pumpkin right into the sautéed onions+ and added cold stock and then blended – BOOM! Ready for the next step!!! Note: if you like a thinner soup, just add more stock! If you want it thicker, reduce it longer.

Then I started spicing it up. First, I poured in a few glugs of maple syrup and a few glugs of cream. Then I added salt, pepper, ground coriander, ground ginger, freshly grated nutmeg… and a bit of dried thyme. Again, season it to your tastes! It would like to try a different batch with some curry spices next time!

Finally, I crumbled up some bacon and tossed it in. Personally, I liked the added texture to the soup, but you could just do a little on top as a garnish instead. (Or add some mashed up leftover potatoes – see last photo.) I reheated it all to boiling and then simmered it for a bit, to let all the flavours blend… and voilà!!! Deliciousness! =)

INGREDIENT LIST

• pumpkin
• salt-reduced bacon
• onion
• garlic
• maple syrup
• cream
• spices: salt, pepper… and possibly coriander, ginger, nutmeg, thyme