Last week I posted a photo of three pie pumpkins in an In My Kitchen post. I ended up roasting them and baking cranberry pumpkin cream cheese muffins. I still had some pumpkin puree left and planned on making this pumpkin soup.
Then Hurricane Matthew happened. The boys were home for three days of school, plus the weekend. I was busy keeping them busy and out of trouble. Josh was out of town. I had a fridge full of leftovers. The soup fell to the bottom of my to do list.
My parents came for the weekend, planned long before the hurricane was in the picture. Josh and I were supposed to go to the Nascar race in Charlotte Saturday night for a work function but the race ended up being delayed a day. It all worked out, we still got a date night out of it since my parents were already here to watch the boys!
Anyway, I ended up making more muffins with what was left of the pumpkin puree Saturday morning. We woke up without power, luckily it was only off for about an hour. I whipped up a double batch of muffins and we sat down to eat. We were nearly done eating when the power went out again.
I still had some muffins in the oven when the power went out. AND I had no idea how long they had been in the oven. It all turned out in the end. I didn’t open the oven until I was pretty sure they would be done and they turned out great. The power came back on within the hour.
So besides a couple short power outages we were very fortunate. We don’t live on the coast and didn’t suffer much damage from Hurricane Matthew. Our plum tree was down, but we managed to pull it back up Sunday morning. We tied it to a few stakes in the ground and a couple other big trees, fingers crossed it doesn’t fall again.
Now it’s a new week and life settles back to our “normal” routine. Until the boys have a planned half day Thursday and Friday off. But this very minute life is relatively normal and I was finally able to roast more pumpkins and make this soup for dinner last night.
It’s the perfect fall dinner. Our temperatures have finally cooled and I absolutely love soups. They are easy to make and keep well. I can reheat them and toss in a thermos for school lunches. Pop leftovers in the freezer for future dinner emergencies. The possibilities are endless.
And of course pumpkin is the perfect choice for a fall soup. Butternut squash, acorn squash or other hearty squashes would work too. I wanted to go the curry route for this soup and fortunately I had the perfect ingredients to add to it.
I had a jar of chickpeas in the fridge that I pressure cooked last week and hadn’t finished using. I also had some leftover veggie stock and even a little piece of fresh ginger root. I usually have a can of coconut milk in the pantry. It was really a clean the fridge meal. That’s what I love about soups, anything goes!
This was a popular dinner. Not only was it delicious, but I let the boys do their own plating. They had bowls of soup and were given a squeeze bottle of sour cream/whipping cream and freshly roasted pumpkin seeds (with chipotle powder). We had some artful plating that night! Jack drew a face with the tongue sticking out, Sean’s looked like a spider web and Ewan had concentric circles.
Coconut Curry Pumpkin Soup
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs. fresh ginger root, minced
2 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
Salt to taste
4 c. vegetable stock
1 can (14 oz.) lite coconut milk
2 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. chickpeas
Warm the olive oil in a medium sized pot over medium high heat. Add onions and sautee for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and sautee for another 1-2 minutes. Add the curry powder, cumin and salt and cook for one minute. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a slow boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 30 minutes or longer.
If desired top with a dollop of sour cream, yogurt, cream, roasted pumpkin seeds, roasted chickpeas…the possibilities are endless.
** If you want a thicker soup just use less vegetable stock to get your desired consistency.
Yields: 4-6 servings
Feeding My 3 Sons 
Glad to hear you escaped the worst of the hurricane and thanks to your recipe no longer will I throw away the lovely seeds in the middle of the pumpkins I buy 😄
Oh yes, the seeds are great for roasting. Sean’s request is for cinnamon roasted seeds next time.
I have two whole butternut squashes at the ready and I’ll be using the seeds!
Well it looks delicious and all the more satisfying made under challenging conditions. Though you are all safe, I am glad that your parents could also be there to weather the storm with you.
It was an adventure that weekend, luckily nothing too bad. It was fun for the boys playing in the rain too! Nothing like a good soup to warm you up afterwards.
I am glad to hear everything is OK! The soup looks delicious!
Hope ya’ll survived all right too!
a really lovely soup – bad weather seems to call out for soup.. c
Soup is perfect when the weather isn’t so pleasant!
I thought of you guys when Matthew hit, Gretchen, and am glad to read that you’re fine. So much damage and the flooding continues! I’ve very little experience cooking with coconut, let alone its milk. If I was to try, this would be the recipe to get me to do it. This sounds delicious and a perfect fall dish. Fingers crossed for that plum tree. 🙂
We were ver lucky when it came to hurricane Matthew. It hit on the one year anniversary of our big flood so in this area we were definitely glad to have no major damage. As for coconut milk, I can’t get enough of it! Some day you’ll have to try cooking with it.
Who knew “someday” would be today? Made a pot of your soup this morning with the intention of freezing half. Well, screw that idea! It’s delicious and I’ll be feasting on soup for my next few lunches. It’s easy enough to prepare that I’ll just make another pot when need be. Thanks, Gretchen.
So glad you liked it! The cold front is finally coming here again which is welcome after a week of the 80s. Bring on more soup!
Oh boy what a delightful photo. Your photos are really impressive. I love the idea of having a date night. Sounds very romantic. Also you have given me a new tip, pumpkin and chickpeas. Must be a great combination!