Pure Hunger

I began my series on pumpkin last week with a 101 on roasting the flesh and making bread from the guts. We continue with soup and later this week, I will feature a recipe for pumpkin curry and put up a suggested menu of recipes for a Thanksgiving meal. The recipe featured today, was actually my first introduction into the concept of local and seasonal foods. A few counselors met in the winter of 2007 to watch a training video for couples counseling. The person who hosted the event made us this soup on a very cold fall day. While we were all there for a training, conversation easily shifted to the food we were eating and the afternoon crept into the night.

Ingredients

Pumpkin Soup
2 Tbsp butter or coconut oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced or sliced
1 apple, diced
2 cups fresh pumpkin, roasted* and diced
1 Tbsp sage leaves
3 cups vegetable broth/boullion (or chicken stock)
1 cup cream or Silk plain soy creamer

Along with the recipe, she later emailed after we all raved about both, she began talking about her experience with local and seasonal foods. She was attempting to source her food and become as close to her farmers and products as possible. After reading a few of her adventures and experiences, I got curious and started educating myself. It’s amazing how little I knew.

Take those two carrots in the picture above. One is from our garden and the other from the co-op. Both are carrots but different varieties. Incredible how the selection of seed changes even the structure of a basic item like carrots. So this recipe is pretty special. It signifies a new beginning, warmth, comfort and friendship. I hope this blog and these recipes can do for you what this recipe started for me.

In a stockpot over medium heat, melt butter and saute carrot, onion, and apple for a few minutes, then stir in pumpkin and sage.  Saute until all are tender (I found I needed to add a little of the broth to moisten it). Add broth and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Puree all or half of the soup (I just pureed half and left in some chunks of carrot, apple, onion). Then add the cream and simmer for another 5 minutes—do not boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste, although I found it was already delicious on its own!