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October 23, 2005

Recipe: Unsweet Pumpkin Soup

I made this from a recipe for Cuban Pumpkin Soup today, and it's really good. I avoid sugar, so many pumpkin and squash soups taste like dessert to me, but the original recipe, which lacked the spices and called for just yogurt, was bland and too chickeny. I improvised, and we liked it.

I added the traditional spices and a bit of sugar. Yogurt alone was too prominent a flavor, but swirling in some sour cream balanced it beautifully and blended the flavors. Feel free to add more sugar or spices to your taste.

It's low-carb -- pumpkin has more fiber than sugar, and the carbs in plain yogurt are consumed by the bacteria in the process of milk becoming yogurt. Low-fat sour cream reduces the fat and calories.

Unsweet Pumpkin Soup

1 tb Olive oil
1 c onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 lb pumpkin meat, pureed or one 1-lb., 15-oz. can of pumpkin
4 c Chicken stock
6 oz. container plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 c low-fat sour cream

Tabasco
Salt and pepper

1 1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar

Cook onion in oil over low heat until it's nearly transparent; onion, add garlic and cook a few minutes more. Add pumpkin, then the stock, slowly, mixing it well. Add Tabasco, salt and pepper.

Simmer about 45 to 50 minutes.

Turn off and add spices and mix well. Stir in yogurt till blended, then swirl sour cream into the soup, leaving streaks.

Updated to reflect that I used one 6-oz container of plain yogurt rather than the full cup called for in the original recipe. This was enough.

Posted by Sheila Lennon at October 23, 2005 10:11 PM