Oh, it has been too long since I posted on Monday. Just so much to think about right now it is difficult to focus on what to write for a blog post. I was busy with another project today so I was barely thinking about dinner much less a blog post. I had a sugar pie pumpkin that needed to be used. Normally with sugar pie pumpkins I make Pumpkin For Dinner but I didn’t feel like making that. I don’t know why. I LOVE that. But I just didn’t want to make it. So I thought I would make pumpkin soup. I have never make pumpkin soup before. I was certain there was a recipe online I could use. But when it came time to make dinner I didn’t feel like looking at a bunch of recipes to figure out which one to make. Or which ones I could use to make soup so I just made up something. For me . . . it was too bitter, but my husband loved it.
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1 sugar pie pumpkin
olive oil
garlic salt
1/2 large onion
32 ounces veggie broth
1 pumpkin beer
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
sprinkle of pepper
sprinkle of nutmeg
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of water
Preheat the oven to 450° F. Wash the pumpkin, then cut it up in quarters. Removing all the seeds. Rub the pumpkin with olive oil and sprinkle both sides of each quarter with garlic salt. Then place the pumpkin – outside up – on a parchment paper lined baking pan. Then bake it for 30 minutes. Take the pumpkin out of the oven and turn each piece over, bake it for about 20 minutes more. This is where you have to decide if it is done in 20 minutes or needs more time in the oven. Use a fork, if needed, mine was kinda brown. It might have been more than 20 minutes.
While the pumpkin is roasting. Heat up some olive oil in your stock pot or soup pan. Chop the onion. Then cook the onion. Then add the broth. Then add the beer. Add the salt and all of the spices. Just let it barely boil.
When the pumpkin is done roasting put it in your super blender (or perhaps you have an immersion blender*) and blend it until you have a pumpkin puree.
Add the pumpkin puree to the liquid in the soup pot. Stir until incorporated. Then serve.
*with the immersion blender add the pumpkin to the liquid then blend until smooth
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So, I didn’t have anything to serve this with. I think I would have put some creme fraiche on top or some cheese. But I wasn’t sure. Strangely I didn’t taste it before I served it. As I said, I have a lot of things on my mind and I was doing three other things while I was cooking, so dinner was super late in the evening, and when I first tried to taste it, it was too hot. I didn’t try again. But it was ok.
My husband really liked it. He said it had a finish that tasted like Taco Bell’s Hot Sauce. Can’t say I am happy about that exactly, but then again, it allowed him to like the soup, so ok. But to me, it was too bitter.
So, help me out. Why was it bitter? Is cardamom bitter? Is cumin? Would cutting back on either of those help with the bitter?