Warming Autumn Soup

I will admit, I found this recipe on the back of a candle I bought at the grocery store… But, before you judge, it made a very excellent pot of soup!

Warming Autumn Soup: To make this soup, you need:

• 1/2 pumpkin, cubed (I used a whole, small Cinderella Pumpkin and simply doubled the recipe)
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 potato, chopped (I used 2 medium red potatoes, though Russets or Yukon Gold might work better)
• 4 cloves garlic, mashed (To do this, simply place the peeled garlic on a cutting board, put the flat side of a vegetable knife on the garlic, and smash your fist down onto the clove. It will break it up nicely and you can throw the splattered garlic straight into the pot.)
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• 2 TBS Olive Oil
• 2 TBS coriander (Fresh or Dried. I used the dried and it worked perfectly).
• 4.2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (I used chicken, since it makes a heartier soup)
• Cayenne, to taste (I added this to give the soup a bit more of a bite since I like spicy food).
• Caraway Seeds, to taste.
• 1 cup whole milk, optional
• 1 cup heavy cream (or 1/2 and 1/2), optional

*Other spices that might work well in this soup: allspice, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon. I have not tried it with those, but I think small amounts could work wonders with the flavor.

To make this excellent soup, heat the olive oil in a stock pot until hot. Add the veggies and cook 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking. You want to cook the vegetables until they are crisp-tender. Then, add the stock and bring it to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes – I went until the vegetables were very tender.

Then – and this is the fun part – use a food processor or blender to puree the soup until mostly smooth. I left the soup a bit coarser than what the recipe suggested, but I think it gives a better mouth feel to have the texture of the vegetables in there. Put the blended soup back into the pot and start seasoning!

I started out with salt and pepper, then added in the caraway seeds and cayenne for more depth of flavor. Because this is a mostly vegetable soup, I wanted to make it a bit heartier, so I added about 1 cup whole milk and 1 cup heavy cream (you could also use 1/2 and 1/2). Once the soup is warmed through, I tossed a handful of chopped parsley on top. This added some more color to the soup and tasted great with it.

Side Dish: Since this soup is fairly light, I made a batch of sweet corn muffins to go along with it. They were fabulous and helped round off the autumn inspired meal.

As I mentioned, I doubled this soup, so we ended up with a lot of it. Without doubling, it will make about 4-5 servings. Since we get to have it again tonight – yay! – we are going to add a bag of frozen corn to the pot.

As a side note and a warning, in case I post any other recipe I do here, I tend to cook by taste. So, when seasoning things, I may differ from what the recipe calls for. It just depends on how I feel in that moment. I love cooking that way, since it give more depth to food by adding your personality into it. So, be bold! Try out whatever spices you think might fit the overall flavors of the soup! If you try out something exciting, share it through the comments below!