Pumpkin Soup Sunday

North Indian-spiced Pumpkin Soup

When I was living in SE Asia, I always ordered pumpkin soup if it was on the menu. I tasted pumpkin soup in Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR and it was always fantastic. Since I've been home, I've tried to find a recipe that comes close and this one is pretty good, although I found it a bit finicky to make. We had this soup on November 1st and again the following Sunday because the recipe made quite a bit.

The recipe calls for several different spices, most of which I had - nothing too exotic. It calls for whole cloves but I used ground (and then, too late, found the whole cloves hidden at the back of my spice shelf!).

One spice the recipe calls for is
'black cardamom pods'. I'd never heard of the pods, but I dutifully went to my local YIG and searched the spice section. I found the jar at left. It is full of little 'pods' but they don't appear black. However I figured this was pretty close, since I live in a small town, with no 'Little India' section or specialty spice stores!

The recipe says: 'warming spices are the centrepiece of this pumpkin soup, and it pays to shop for fresh ones . . .' I used what I had on hand.  I did toast the spices as directed.

The recipe calls for two small pie pumpkins but I am too lazy to go to the trouble of cutting them up. I used 2 cans of pure pumpkin purée.

I started the spice warming in the black frying pan, but realized it wouldn't be large enough to hold the pumpkin and liquid. So I switched pans, but I didn't want to lose all the spices, so I added half the water to the spice pan and then poured it all into my soup pot.

At left is the garnish cooking. It looks rich - and it is, the cashews are cooking in butter - but the garnish really added to the soup.

        The finished product! I like thick soups like this, but water can be added to thin it out.

Recipe

Soup

• 1 tbsp cumin seed (I used ground)
• 4 tsp coriander seed
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick, 3 inches
• 6 cloves (I used 1/2 tsp ground)
• 3 pods black cardamom
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 large brown onions, thinly sliced (I used regular white cooking onions and I diced them)
• 2 fresh bay leaves (I used dry)
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 3 cups homemade chicken stock (Homemade! What's up with that? I used perfectly acceptable, reduced salt Campbell's. You could also use vegetable broth for the vegetarian option). 
• 2 cups water
• 6 cups peeled and chopped pie pumpkin ( or 3 cups pumpkin purée, about two 14 fl. oz. cans)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt, preferably 3% MF (I used one 200 ml container).

Garnish

• 3 tbsp salted butter
• 1/2 cup roasted, unsalted cashews
• 2 tsp black or brown mustard seed (I used the 'yellow' kind you put in pickles)

Method

• For the soup, toast cumin, coriander, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until fragrant, about 3 minutes. (At this point I got out my soup pot). Add butter to pan/pot. When it has melted, stir in onions, bay leaves, ginger and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes or until onions are softened. Reduce heat to low (I then added the toasted spices from the frying pan), and cook an additional 10 minutes, stirring frequently, or until golden. 
• Pour chicken stock and 2 cups water into pan/pot. (I took 1 cup of the water and rinsed the spice pan wit it and poured it into the soup pot). Stir in pumpkin and salt. Increase heat to medium, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. (Obviously the canned pumpkin doesn't need to cook as long. I reduced the heat and simmered it for about 20 minutes anyway because I wanted to 'infuse' the pumpkin with the spices). Remove from heat and stir in yogurt.
• Remove cinnamon stick and bay leaves and discard. (so far so good). Remove cardamom pods and, when cool enough to handle, scrape seeds out and add to pot; discard pods. (OK, this was really tricky - the pods I used were pretty small and the soup pretty thick, so it took me awhile to find all three. Maybe the 'black' cardamom pods are bigger).
• Working in batches, purée soup in blender (Use a hand blender right in the pot - much easier). Keep warm while preparing garnish. (Soup may be made ahead, covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days and re-warmed over medium-low heat).
• For garnish, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add cashews to pan and continue to cook until butter turns a light tan colour. Remove from heat and stir in mustard seed (butter will continue to darken for a few minutes and develop a nutty aroma).
• Ladle soup into warm bowls and garnish each with a spoonful of the butter/nut/seed mixture.

Serves 6

I'm not sure where I got this recipe - could be from the LCBO's 'Food and Drink' magazine, kind of looks like the font. We both really enjoyed it. It would be good served with warmed naan.

Enjoy!