I’ve got a secret to tell you…I’m obsessed with fall and everything about it! Well, that’s really not a secret. I’m pretty much in love with everything about sweater weather and bonfire season. Most importantly, I love pumpkins -baking or cooking anything with these delicious squash!
Now, I don’t mean cooking with canned pumpkins. Nah, it’s just not the same. You see, years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to baking a pumpkin pie with a small pie pumpkin. I was never a pumpkin pie person then because, well, I have never had a true pumpkin pie until she introduced me to her pie and the recipe she used. It was delicious, and since then, I have been obsessed with only baking or cooking anything pumpkins by roasting my own pumpkins.
Moving to Germany, I could not find pie pumpkins (unless I didn’t look hard enough). I was worried I would have to forego my annual pumpkin recipes to the fake kind in a can (sorry, it really is not the same). I’m sure you can use other pumpkins, but I am only particular to this type of pumpkin for baking back in the states.
Anyhow, enters Hokkaido (pronounced Ho-ka-ee-do in German) pumpkins. I saw these types of pumpkins all over our local German grocery stores. It wasn’t until we visited a Pumpkin farm- Hitscherhoff Farm, where we had our first pumpkin soup that I knew I had to try this recipe on my own, and Hokkaido pumpkin was clearly the winner here for the recipe! It was the best pumpkin soup I have ever had! I wanted to recreate it! Luckily, I found a recipe in one of our local groups on social media that ended up being a good recipe! I added corn and crab meat to it as a finishing touch. It was delicious! I would say it tasted just like the soup from the farm, if not better!
So, I don’t think it matters if you have Hokkaido pumpkins, but I would suggest researching some other pumpkins that may be good with this recipe if Hokkaidos aren’t in your neck of the woods (I feel like you can find them on the west coast). So, if you love pumpkin soup (and this is a good one), you should try this recipe!
Kürbiscremesuppe
Ingredients
- 1 medium sugar/pie pumpkin or Hokkaido
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter or regular/vegan butter
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 4 cups chicken broth or stock- see note If you don't have Chicken Broth/stock, use Chicken bouillon powder (I would use 1 tsp for every cup of water) with the water.
- 1/2 cup Good Reisling or White wine (Reisling is best)
- 1/2 cup (optional) canned or frozen corn- save some for garnish at end
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- sugar to taste
- 1 cup Heavy Sweet Cream or half and half (or vegan option)
- Save extra heavy cream/or if your store has spray cream (not the spray whipped cream for desserts) use that for garnish at the end
- 1 tbsp Chopped chives for garnish
- Optional- Crab meat. This, I also add to this recipe as a treat for me, but only as an additive at the end. My kids do not like crabmeat, so I leave that out for them.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit / 200 degrees Celsius. Prepare a lined baking pan big enough to fit your pumpkin.
- Cut the pumpkin in half carefully. You can go ahead and scoop the seeds in the middle out with a large spoon, or roast as is and wait to scoop after it has cooked. I usually wait till after. Leave the skin on.
- Place the pumpkin halves faced down into the pan (the flesh will be facing down in the pan while the round outer area is facing up). Place the pan in the oven and add 1-2 inch of water into the pan (atleast till you see that 1/4 of the pumpkin has been covered in water). Then roast for 40 minutes or until a knife cuts through the pumpkin easily when you test it. Let cool when done. That's how you roast a pumpkin (best recipe for using all natural pumpkin puree)!!!! *Note: for the soup, I only leave the skin on and use for the recipe; but for the pies and other pumpkin recipes, I scoop the meat out and use the meat for my recipe and discard the skin***
- While the pumpkin is cooking, I go ahead and prep my other ingredients.
- Once pumpkin is done roasting, I let it cool. While it cools, I go ahead and heat a medium-large sized pot and put in my butter.
- Add the onion and garlic and mix until translucent.
- Pour in the chicken broth and wine.
- (Optional) Add your corn at this time.
- For the Pumpkin, if I left the seeds, I scoop those first and discard. Then, I chop my pumpkin with the skin and add to the pot. Mix all ingredients. Then, let simmer for 20 minutes, until pumpkins is soft.
- With a hand blender, puree your mixture well, especially if you left the pumpkin skin. If you don't have a hand blender, you can also carefully transfer to a regular blender and puree, then return to pot. (Add small amounts of water if puree is too dry).
- Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, sugar (I let this simmer for a few minutes). Then turn off stove.
- Last, add sweet heavy cream (or half and half) and stir mixture evenly.
- To serve, garnish with heavy cream, pumpkin seeds, chives, and some corn (optional) and/or crabmeat (also optional). Serve with fresh bread you can dip into the soup. Yum!
I really hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I do. Thanks for reading this far! As always, till next time! Bis zum nächstenmal!
