Italian Pumpkin Soup Is Not Only Easy But Also Healthy

When I first wrote about Acorn Squash Soup, pumpkin and acorn were about the same price. I like the flavor of roasted acorn squash so I could buy a couple of small ones and make one into soup and the other eat roasted. Well in the past year, one market has dropped the price of pumpkin down as low as fifty cents a pound and started selling one pound pieces. So naturally I decided to try pumpkin soup using my Acorn Squash Soup recipe.

Actually, Italian Pumpkin Soup is richer and bolder than Acorn Squash Soup and just as versatile. I made a vegan version with coined carrots where you have to blanch the carrots until tender and add them back after the pumpkin soup is pureed. The version pictured above is with chicken and when I cooked it on the stove top, I included carrots, dumplings and chicken. When rereading the acorn squash recipe, I see that I no longer add Pasta to soup. If you choose to do this in your coffeepot, you have to cook the pasta for twice as long as called for and avoid leftovers as the pasta has a tendency to turn mushy. So in effect, this really is an entirely different soup and deserves it's own recipe.

Italian Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 can vegetable broth or Chicken Broth
• ¾ to I pound pumpkin
• 3-4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 small onion diced
• Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• Optional – Piece of chicken with or without the bone
• Optional – Coined Carrots, precooked
• Optional -Tablespoon grated Parmesan sprinkled on top

Method:

1. Peal and cube the pumpkin and get rid of the skin and seeds.
2. Add cubed pumpkin and garlic to the pot and cook with broth for 2 hours
3. Puree in blender or remove pumpkin from broth and mash by hand.
4. Add onion and chicken or cooked carrots if desired. Cook additional 2 hours.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.