Roasted pumpkin soup

Roasted, not boiled. That one change makes it a completely different soup.

45 min
Total time: 45 min
Hands-on: 4 servings
Servings: 165 cal
Per serving: Easy
Difficulty: Oven and blender
Method

Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture · Public domain

Ingredients

4 servings

Nutrition facts

per serving

165cal

Protein: 4 g10 %
Carbs: 22 g53 %
Fat: 7 g38 %
Fiber: 5 g
Sugarstotal, including the natural sugars in fruit and dairy: 11 g

Approximate values, calculated from food composition tables. They vary with the brands and cuts you use.

Step by step

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Roasted pumpkin soup

Roasted, not boiled. That one change makes it a completely different soup.

1Step 1 of 5

Chop and season

Heat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Cut the squash into 1¼-inch (3 cm) cubes, the onion into quarters and the carrot into chunks. Spread everything on a sheet pan with the unpeeled garlic, drizzle with the oil, add salt, pepper and cumin, and toss with your hands.

Tip: In a single layer, not piled up. Crowded vegetables steam instead of roast, which is exactly what we want to avoid.

2Step 2 of 5

35 minutes in the oven

Roast for 35 minutes, stirring once halfway. They're ready when the edges of the squash are golden and a fork goes in with no resistance.

Tip: Those toasty edges are literally the flavor of the recipe. If you take the pan out with nothing browned, it needs more time.

35:0035 min · 35 minutes in the oven

3Step 3 of 5

Blend with hot broth

Transfer the vegetables to the blender, squeezing the garlic out of its skin. Add half the hot broth and blend on high for 1 minute.

4Step 4 of 5

Adjust the texture

Gradually add the rest of the broth until you reach the thickness you like. For dinner I like it thick, so the spoon almost stands up; if you prefer it lighter, add a bit more broth.

Tip: Better to add too little broth and top it up. Thinning is easy; thickening isn't.

5Step 5 of 5

Season and serve

Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with toasted pumpkin seeds on top and a drizzle of raw olive oil.

About this recipe

Almost everyone makes pumpkin soup by boiling the squash, and that's the problem: it soaks up water, loses flavor and you end up with a pale soup that has to be rescued with cream and bouillon cubes.

Roasting does the exact opposite. The water evaporates, the natural sugars caramelize and the flavor concentrates. The soup comes out sweet, intense and a gorgeous orange without adding anything.

165 calories per serving and silky without a drop of cream. It's the fall and winter dinner.

Tips for getting it right

A full minute of blending is what makes it silky. With twenty seconds it's grainy, however much squash it has.
No need to strain it: just blend longer. It almost never needs a sieve.
A spoonful of plain Greek yogurt or cottage cheese when serving makes it creamier and adds protein with hardly any calories.

Variations

With ginger

A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger roasted with the vegetables. It adds a very pleasant warmth.

More filling

Top it with a chopped hard-boiled egg or some crunchy chickpeas and it becomes a real one-bowl dinner.

Storage

4 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer. It freezes very well because it has no dairy.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Why roast the squash instead of boiling it?

Because boiled squash soaks up water and the flavor gets diluted, while roasted squash loses water and its sugars caramelize. The difference in flavor is huge, and it's why this soup doesn't need cream or bouillon.

Can I make it without an oven?

You can sauté the squash in a wide skillet over high heat until it browns, then add the broth. It's not quite the same, but it's much closer than boiling it.

What's the best squash for soup?

Butternut is the most reliable: sweet, not too watery and easy to peel. Sugar pumpkin works well too. Hard-skinned squash like kabocha tastes great but is much harder to peel.

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