Sauce Magazine Pumpkin Crème Soup

Moving from Detroit to St. Louis meant that there’d be some differences but remarkably, there are quite a few similar qualities as well. Both cities have vibrant life within them that sometimes you have to search out before you can see, but it’s there. In St. Louis, much of that life revolves around good quality food.

Sauce Magazine, one of two St. Louis food magazines (FEAST being the other), works to expose locals to the best food one can find in and around the city. They often include one or two interesting and unique recipes and the one I made on Sunday was perfect for the changing fall weather.

Spicy Pumpkin Crème Soup (adapted from Sauce Magazine)
(serves 2 hungry people on a cold evening)

• 1.5 tbsp butter
• 1 medium leek, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 2.5 cups vegetable stock
• 1/4 tbsp ginger
• 1/8 crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Black pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
• Roasted pumpkin seeds, for garnish

Note: The original recipe adds a browned butter component. Brown butter is incredibly tasty and I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, I realized too late that we only had Earth Balance, which is butter made from oils and not milk (the best vegan butter out there!), and the browning part comes from breaking down the protein solids in milk. I usually keep regular butter around but we were out, so the browned butter component went out the window.

Also, click here for the original recipe if you’re serving more people!

Melt (and brown) the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then stir in the leek and garlic, cooking for about four minutes. Add the pumpkin and stock and continue to stir. Add the ginger, red pepper flakes, coriander, curry powder, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Transfer the soup to a blender (or use an immersion blender) to puree the soup until smooth. Return to the pot and over low heat, add the brown sugar, then sour cream/yogurt, and stir to combine. Ladle into bowls (or mugs!) and top with leek slices and toasted pumpkin seeds.

This soup was much more delicious than I was expecting. I love pumpkin come fall but I’m over it rather quickly. However, the pumpkin in this soup almost took second place behind the spice explosion, particularly the curry powder and ginger. The crunch of the toasted pumpkin seeds added a nutty aftertaste that exemplified fall.

Enjoy!

Question: Do you eat pumpkin other times throughout the year? How quickly do you get sick of it?