Ah, fall, a perfect time for a spicy pumpkin soup! This soup comes together quickly, and has warm notes of ginger, curry, cumin, coriander, and black pepper. Great flavor additions that enhance not detract from the pumpkin.
What gives the soup its heat? Not chili this time, but some freshly minced ginger. I love the zing ginger brings to the soup. (If it’s too much for you, just scale back.)
This recipe is a major upgrade from a soup we posted in 2006. I was never quite satisfied with that soup. This one nails it. If you liked the original, I think you’ll love the new and improved version! (BTW, you can still find the original on the Internet Archive here.
Spicy Pumpkin Soup Recipe
PrintIngredients
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped yellow onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
- 2 teaspoons minced, peeled fresh ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- Small pinch of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of kosher salt plus more to taste
- 4 cups low sodium chicken stock (or vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 (15 oz) cans 100 percent pumpkin or 3 1/2 cups of chopped roasted pumpkin purée*
- 1 cup water
- 3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- Yogurt (for garnish)
- Toasted pumpkin seeds (for garnish)
*To make pumpkin purée, cut a sugar pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lay face down on a tin-foil lined baking pan. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Purée in food processor. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use.
Method
1 Sauté onions in butter, add garlic, ginger, spices: Melt butter in a large (5 to 6 quart), thick-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until softened, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Add the minced garlic and ginger, cook another minute.
Add the curry powder, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and salt. Cook for another 2 minutes.
2 Add stock, bay leaves, and pumpkin purée: Add the chicken stock and the bay leaves. Add the pumpkin purée and the water. Stir to combine. If the soup is too thick for your taste, add more stock or water to thin it.
Increase heat to high. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
3 Purée soup: Remove bay leaves. Use an immersion blender to purée the soup.
4 Stir in cream: Right before serving, stir in the cream. Add black pepper and adjust seasonings to taste. Add more salt if necessary.
Drizzle with plain yogurt that has been thinned with a little water and sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds to serve.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
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Well this is interesting. Until just now I really had never heard of you. Back in December 2005, I copied your Spicy Pumpkin Soup recipe and have been making it ever since for the holidays. My wife loves it even more than Panera’s Autumn Squash soup. We were invited over to our neighbor’s Christmas Eve dinner last night and this was my contribution. My neighbor wanted the recipe, so I searched for the original to send to her. I came upon your site and the new updated recipe. (Also read your bio on LinkedIn to learn more). I will have to try this version as it is hard to imagine it could top the old one. The original would appear to be creamier as it has more cream and no water. By the way I used 2 cups of light cream and 1/2 cup of 2% milk. So next time we will see how it goes. I will be signing up for your site looking for your latest creations.
I just made it tonight and it was delicious.Thank you for the recipe.
xxxxxyyyyy
I had some leftover pumpkin puree, so I decided to make a pumpkin soup. I halved the recipe. The only difference is I added a half of a minced seeded habanero pepper to give some sweetness and spice to the soup. It came out medium spicy for me, which is probably very spicy for most people. I used Jamaican curry because that’s what I had in the house. It turned out really well in my opinion.
I added a bit of honey and “pumpkin spices” (cinnamon mostly, nutmeg, cloves) and it really stepped this up. Little bit spicy, little bit salty, little bit sweet.
I’m not sure why this was so highly praised. I made it and it took a long time, it smelled wonderful, and it looked very pretty, but when you take a bite, there’s truly nothing special about this recipe at all. It wasn’t spicy, it really didn’t taste like much of anything. Most likely will not make this again unless I find something that can give it flare and flavor.