Spicy Pumpkin Soup

By Caroline Clough in Food on Oct 23, 2006 4:12PM

Chicagoist has been walking around a fair amount lately, and we have noticed that Chicagoans sure care about Halloween. We've noticed many fake spider webs, gravestones with plastic rats on top, orange lights strung all around the porch, and, of course, pumpkins. We've seen intricately knifed jack-o-lanterns, kids' first attempts at evil, and uncarved pumpkins the size of a small pony accented by corn stalks. That's a lot of pumpkins, people. If you chose to go the more harvesty decoration route and have not cut into your pumpkin, please don't, you can use it to make the soup we want to tell you about. And if you have already carved (or stencilled) a scary face into your pumpkin, well, go out and get another one.

For this recipe we used a small pumpkin, a baby pumpkin if you will. This recipe yielded about five cups of soup. If you want to make a larger amount of soup, simply increase your pumpkin size, and double most of the other ingredients. We, personally, found the soup a little spicier than we meant it to be, but the six people who tried it said that we were a pansy and that the spice worked well.

What You Need
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 white onion (chopped)
3 garlic cloves (chopped)
1 small pumpkin
4 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cilantro
3 sage leaves (chopped)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 pint half and half
3 sheafs yuba (we got ours in the frozen food section of Golden Pacific Market)

What You Do
1. Cut your pumpkin open, and get all the seeds out. If you're feeling really enthusiastic, you could also peel the pumpkin. We were not feeling enthusiastic, and the soup came out fine.
2. Once all the seeds and stringy matter are removed from the pumpkin, chop up your pumpkin into one-inch (or so) squares/rectangles/cubes.
3. In a large pot or Dutch oven heat up the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft (about ten minutes).
4. Add one tablespoon curry and the nutmeg. Cook for two minutes.
5. Add the chicken broth, and turn up the heat.
6. Add the pumpkin pieces. If the broth doesn't entirely cover the pumpkin, add the water.
7. Add the remaining spices, and allow the mixture to come to a rolling boil for ten minutes (or until the pumpkin pieces are soft).
8. Turn down the heat, and get out a blender.
9. In small batches, blend the liquid and pumpkin pieces together.
10. Once all has been blended (making a thicker, more orange mixture), return all back to your big pot.
11. Over a low to medium heat add the half-and-half and yuba (we cut up ours into irregular sized strips), and stir until hot.
12. Serve with a garnish of parsley or (to cut down on the spice) a dollop of sour cream.