spicy pumpkin soup

Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is than a fatted ox and hatred in it.

Proverbs 15:17

This soup is delicious.  We eat it with grilled swiss cheese sandwiches.  Make it sometime!

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

4 tbsp unsalted butter

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper

2 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

Pinch of ground cayenne pepper

3 cans pumpkin or 6 cups roasted pumpkin puree*

5 cups chicken or vegetable broth or water

2 cups of milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream (you can substitute milk or half and half)

Melt butter in a big pot and cook the onions and garlic in it over medium-ish heat until soft (just a few minutes).  Stir in the spices and cook for about one more minute.  Add pumpkin and broth; mix well.  Boil and reduce heat, simmering for 15 minutes.

Little by little blend the soup in your blender (food processor works too) till it's good and smooth.  Then return it to the pot.  Over low heat add the brown sugar and slowly stir in the milk and then the cream.  If your broth isn't salty, add salt to taste.  

*I made pumpkin puree with leftover Halloween pumpkins after buying eight for youth group kids to carve (they never got carved).  They are still good over a month later!  You're supposed to use sugar pumpkins, but these taste just fine.  For instructions on making homemade pumpkin puree, go here: pumpkin puree recipe.  

Sources: Simply Recipes, for soup, adapted from Oprah magazine

               Annie's Eats, for pumpkin puree