Whole Pumpkin Soup

For the one year anniversary of blogging my recipes I have chosen a "fun" recipe.  I have learned so much in this year of blogging, between the way a blog leads you to places you weren't expecting, to family recipes you don't want to lose, to new recipes you can't wait to try, connections to people all over and techy stuff I never thought I would need to know.  I plan to continue on and see where the next year takes me, what started as an organizational plan has led to so much more. 

 Hope some of you are getting inspired to cook!

Whole Pumpkin Soup

Alton Brown from Food Network was making this soup while promoting his cookbook it peaked my interest and had to try it.  You can watch a video of him preparing it here at 

  Food Network .  Jim enjoys watching Alton because he goes into the history and science behind the recipe.  I'm usually "just get to the recipe" but glad I listened & tried this, will definitely be making it again.  The procedure is very easy, after you scoop the pumpkin out you just drop in the ingredients and bake.  The only draw back I would say is that it does have to cook for 2 hours.  This night the pumpkin had me thinking Thanksgiving so I did Turkey & a baked cheesy spinach which could all be in the oven at the same time.  The pumpkin takes up a lot of space & serves 4-5 with a cup of soup, so if you want more you would need to do 2 pumpkins.  I am guessing you could do it ahead not sure if you would loose the texture in reheating it though.  This is a savory soup you don't even taste the apple.

Whole Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole baking pumpkin (about 4 lbs rinsed)
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 T unsalted butter
1/2 small onion diced
1 tsp kosher salt
1 clove garlic minced
1 small apple peeled & diced
1 c low sodium chicken broth
1/2 c heavy cream ( I used 1/2 & 1/2 worked fine)
2 oz goat cheese
1 tsp Thyme leaves

Heat oven to 375°

Directions:

Make a lid as you would for a Jack O'Lantern that you can replace into the pumpkin.  Scoop out seeds and scrape sides.  You must be careful not to cut through the pumpkin now or at the end when you prepare to blend.  Rub oil on the outside of the pumpkin and the inside of a casserole dish large enough to hold pumpkin.
Place butter, onion, salt, garlic, apple, broth, cream into pumpkin and replace lid.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the lid drop in cheese and Thyme continue to bake uncovered for 30 min.
Take the pumpkin from the oven leaving it in the casserole carefully scrape loose the soft pumpkin from the sides without puncturing skin of pumpkin.  Then using immersion blender blend soup inside of pumpkin to desired consistency, being careful as the soup is hot.  Serve immediately.

bake first 1 1/2 hours covered

Be careful not to break through pumpkin, it doesn't ruin it
but will involve some scooping!