Curried Long Island Cheese Pumpkin Soup



Ingredients

  • 1 small Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped—about 5-6 cups. If unavailable, use medium sized Butternut Squash.
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 T freshly grated ginger root
  • 2 t curry powder
    • *
1/4 t crushed red peppers
  • 1/2 t turmeric
    • *
1 t ground cumin
  • 1 t coriander
  • 4 c vegetable broth
  • 2 t brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream and milk. Any proportion you like.

Directions

Peel, seed and chop pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and cut the pumpkin into manageable vertical slices. Cheese pumpkin rind is very tough. I cut it off by laying the slices sideways on a chopping board and cutting downward. Chop pumpkin into 2” pieces

In heavy stockpot or Dutch Oven heat olive oil until hot, but not smoking. Throw in onions, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally and adjusting flame to keep vegetables from browning, until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

Add curry powder, red pepper, turmeric and cumin. Lower flame and cook, stirring occasionally, to allow spices’ flavor to bloom fully—about 5 more minutes.

Add spices and allow them to cook for a few minutes, stirring to keep them from burning.

Add pumpkin, stir to coat with spices and cook 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally and adjusting flame to keep vegetables from browning.

Add hot broth, cover pot, and bring to boil, then immediately reduce to low simmer.

Simmer broth and vegetables for 30 minutes, until very soft.

Spoon broth and vegetables into a food processor. Purée until very smooth. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may need to process in 2 batches.

Pour puréed pumpkin back into pot. (At this point, pumpkin soup can be set aside, stored or frozen until ready to serve. When ready to serve, thaw or reheat pumpkin over low flame, stirring occasionally to keep purée from scorching.)

Stir in cream and milk in any proportion you like—I like more cream. Heat for 1-2 more minutes. Ladle into tureen or bowls and serve. We like to accompany this soup with garlicky croutons.