Well, I’ve finally done it for this year. I’ve made the pumpkin soup. It’s amazing how much work it is to make the soup when you are cutting up your own pumpkins. The soup itself is actually quite easy. I’ll get right to it. Here’s what I did:

7 lbs of pumpkin roughly cubed
2 large onions roughly sliced
2 sticks of butter
10 cans (14 oz each) of vegetable broth
salt and pepper or other spices to taste

In a large stock pot, melt 1 stick of butter over low heat and toss in onion and pumpkin cubes. Toss until the onion is translucent. Add the cans of vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until pumpkin is soft (about 30 minutes). Remove pumpkin and onion pieces to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Return puree to a new pot. Add broth until you like the texture. Add the second stick of butter and stir until fully blended. Add salt and pepper to taste (or other spices if you desire.)

Now this recipe makes A LOT of soup. It makes about 7 quarts, so if you’re not looking to freeze it (like I am) you will probably want to half the recipe.

You can also use milk to thicken the soup or use sweet potatoes or potatoes in addition to the pumpkin. Experiment with it. The possibilities are really endless.

I went shopping early this year for pumpkins. I knew I wanted to make soup, but also, I wanted a nice looking pumpkin for a jack o’ lantern and we usually wind up going so late that we have a hard time finding a pumpkin with a stem. Well, this year I wasn’t disappointed. There were a lot of nice looking pumpkins on the lot, all with good stems, too. Here were the some of the contenders:

Ultimately, we chose the one on the right. Clearly the most classic of the bunch.

After we picked out two of those, I asked one of the farmers which type of pumpkin might be the best for cooking. He recommended cheese pumpkins which are on the pale side and kind of squat. Not knowing what size pumpkins I would need to get 7 lbs of actual flesh, we decided that I should buy a pumpkin at least twice the weight. I chose two approximately 11 lb pumpkins. Ultimately, I wound up with a little bit of pumpkin left over for the critters. They’ll be fat and happy this year. So here they are (were):

They even look kind of cheesy.

Cutting up pumpkins is a real chore. If you’ve ever carved a face into one you got a little taste of it. To cut these up, I just cut the top the same as I would do to make a jack o’ lantern. Then, after removing the seeds and stringy stuff, I cut it into sections and then cut the sections into smaller and smaller sections until it was easy to separate the rind from the flesh with one stroke.

The seeds of these pumpkins are beautiful, very large and shiny, and in the second pumpkin I carved up, they had started to sprout. Each seed had a little root trailing behind it. Boy, they look a lot like sperm. Maybe it’s some kind of omen. Let’s hope a good one!

I don’t just make soup out of the pumpkins. I also love roasted seeds. Roasting seeds is very easy. Just lay them out on a non-stick cookie sheet (or you can use a cooking spray like Pam, or a little vegetable oil) sprinkle some salt over the top and put them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes. Watch them so they don’t burn. I give them a shake when they’re about halfway done. Don’t worry, I kept some of these beauties aside for planting!

I would liked to have a shown you a picture of the blending, but things got a little hectic here and I forgot to take a shot. Nevertheless, here’s what the soup ultimately looked like.

Croutons really are a must in this soup. These are cheese and garlic croutons. Try different ones.

As for Jack, you’ll have to wait just a few more days. :-)