Spiced Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin, sweet potato and nutmeg combine with savory ingredients in this deliciously warming spiced pumpkin soup. This soup is great on a chilly Fall evening served with crusty bread, but it would also be perfect served with your Thanksgiving meal.

I had several containers of frozen roasted pumpkin puree from last Fall that I wanted to use before I roasted more this season.  This Spiced Pumpkin Soup was the perfect way to use it.

Speaking of Fall and pumpkins, did you know?

Native Americans were growing pumpkins for hundreds of years before Europeans first came to America. They grew them in mounds among their other crops. They used pumpkin chunks in stew and fed pumpkin pieces to their horses.”
Source: Pumpkin Lovers Cookbook. Golden West Publishers, Copyright © 2007.

Spiced Pumpkin Soup

Recipe from: She Knows Food & Recipes

You can find a slight variation of the recipe here

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup onion, chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup peeled and cubed sweet potato
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 14-ounce cans of nonfat and low-sodium chicken broth
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin (I used roasted pumpkin puree)
1 cup 1 percent milk
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Nonfat sour cream (optional)
Chopped cilantro for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Melt butter in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Sauté onion for 3 to 4 minutes, then add flour, curry, cumin and nutmeg; sauté for 1 minute.

Add sweet potato, salt, chicken broth and pumpkin and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered for about 20 to 25 minutes or until sweet potatoes are cooked through and softened. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes to cool.

Place half of the pumpkin mixture in a blender and process until smooth.

Using a strainer, pour soup back into pan. Repeat with rest of soup.  I started straining the soup, but then decided it didn’t need it.  I liked it thick so I just dumped all of it back in the pan without straining it.

Raise the heat to medium, then stir in milk and cook for 5 minutes or until soup is heated through. Remove from heat and add lime juice.

Serve with an optional dollop of nonfat sour cream and/or sprinkled with chopped cilantro.

I topped the soup with parsley the first time I served it. We enjoyed a bowl of the Spiced Pumpkin Soup with these Tabbouleh Rolls with Parsley, Garlic and Bulger and a salad.

There was enough soup leftover for the next day so this time, I topped it with cilantro.  I didn’t have fresh so I just used dried cilantro. Although fresh cilantro would be better, it still tasted good.

Nutrition facts per serving (1/6 of recipe or 300 grams): 128 calories, 31 calories from fat, 3g fat, 2g saturated fat, 7mg cholesterol, 351mg sodium, 19g carbohydrates, 3g dietary fiber, 0g sugars, 6g protein, 405 percent Vitamin A, 15 percent vitamin C, 8 percent calcium, 8 percent iron

I hope you enjoyed this soup and will join me again soon.

Happy Soup Making!

Cathy