The first thing you’ll want to do is to find a nice, fresh, ripe pumpkin for your soup. The pumpkin should be about three pounds or so for a soup that will serve eight people. You’ll first want to cut open the top of the pumpkin, remove the lid, and scoop out all of the pumpkin seeds inside, just like you would if you were going to carve it into a jack-o-lantern. Next you’ll want to peel the pumpkin’s outer skin off. You can either peel the pumpkin while it’s whole or cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces and peel it like that. You can use the same type of peeler you would use to peel carrots or use a knife, but be very careful. Then you’ll want to chop the pumpkin flesh into chunks. Don’t worry about making the pumpkin chunks the same size because you’re going to put it all into a blender later.
Get four large yellow onions and slice them up. Heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot, add the onions, and fry them until they’re a rich golden color. Next you’ll need two teaspoons of curry paste, two crushed garlic cloves, and four chopped red chili peppers. Make sure you remove the seeds of the chili peppers before you chop them, unless you want a really spicy pumpkin soup! Add the curry, garlic, and peppers to the onion mixture and simmer for one minute.
Now you can add the pumpkin chunks to the mixture and let it cook for about five minutes, stirring as it cooks. Next, add six cups of vegetable stock and a couple of shakes of salt and pepper for seasoning. Bring the pumpkin soup mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Make sure the bottom of the pumpkin soup doesn’t burn by stirring it occasionally or it will taste like you cooked the candle in with the soup!
Let the pumpkin soup cool down a bit and then pour it into a blender or food processor. Blend the pumpkin soup until smooth, but leave a few small pumpkin chunks to give it some substance. It’s probably best to do a little bit of the soup at a time to make sure it blends thoroughly. After you’ve blended all of the pumpkin soup, return it to the pot to reheat, and then serve. You can store the pumpkin soup mixture in the refrigerator in a sealed container a few hours and then heat it before serving if you want to prepare it ahead of time.
When serving your pumpkin soup, you can make it even more festive by hollowing out smaller pumpkins and using them as “pumpkin” soup bowls! You can also make bread bowls and serve the warm pumpkin soup in those for an elegant look. Sprinkling a bit of nutmeg or cinnamon on the top of the pumpkin soup is also a delicious touch. So, go ahead, give this pumpkin soup recipe a try and watch all your ghastly Halloween guests gobble it up like they’ve just seen a ghost!
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