Creamy squash soup (that you can also make with squash) topped with candied bacon, pumpkin seeds and crispy sage leaves fried in brown butter. A perfect, cozy fall meal. Just add a hearty bread!
I swear to you no one has a more difficult time writing posts about soup than me. I get soup block.
Which doesn't really make much sense since I love soup so much. If someone were to come up to me in the grocery store and ask me my thoughts on soup I could probably go on for the entire duration of their grocery shop, hop in the car with them, go get gas, pick the kids up from school, help put the groceries away, make dinner, watch a little tv, hop into bed with them and still have many more things to say about soup.
But writing a post on soup? I got nothin'. Nothing more eloquent than ... I like soup. Soup is good. Now that we have that eloquent writing out of the way onto the soup.
The premise of this recipe is simple. Cut up all of your ingredients and put them on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan.
Roast them in the oven until ... roasted.
Transfer the roasted vegetables to a pot of broth, simmer and blend.
But the best, the very BEST part of this soup is the crispy bacon and pumpkin seeds caramelized in brown sugar. WITH butter fried sage leaves.
Without the garnish this soup is just your basic wildly, incredible soup. WITH the garnish it's a one way ticket to restaurant quality euphoria.
Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds of sweet squash kabocha, delicata, butternut or acorn
- 1 onion peeled and cut into wedges
- 1 Granny Smith apple cored and cut into wedges
- 3 garlic cloves whole and unpeeled
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. nutmeg
- 6-8 cups chicken broth
- 2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar
- Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 bunch sage leaves
- 3 slices of bacon cut into batons width wise
- each "baton" is width of bacon x slightly less than ¼"
- ½ cup of pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
- 3 Tbsp. brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 f (180 c)
- Put squash, onion, apple, garlic cloves onto roasting pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, a generals dosing of salt and pepper.
- Roast in oven until vegetables are cooked and soft. Approximately 30 minutes)
- Once cool enough to handle, remove squash from skin and squeeze out garlic.
- Add everything to a soup pot with 6 cups of chicken broth. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Puree in blender or with stick blender. Add brown sugar to taste. Add more broth if needed to thin soup and reheat.
- Heat 2-3 Tbsps olive oil in frying pan over medium high heat.
- Add sage leaves and fry until crispy but not darkened. Remove and drain on paper towel.
- Add bacon batons to pan and fry until golden brown and starting to get crispy. Add pumpkin seeds and cook another minute or two.
- Add brown sugar and continue to stir until brown sugar has melted and caramelized over bacon and seeds.
- Serve soup in bowls and top with a tablespoon of bacon and pumpkin seed mixture, and one or two fried sage leaves.
Nutrition
It's an easy, easy recipe that has HUGE taste. Which is exactly how I like my soups. Just ask me in the grocery store. I'll tell you all about it.
When you say everything I’m gonna say that also includes the onions, apples etc. correct?!
What's with all the sugar? I've been making fabulous squash soup for decades with no sugar at all. I really don't think it's necessary especially these days when sugar should be kept to a minimum. Besides, roasting produces some sweet caramelization and that is enough sugar IMHO.
All the sugar? There are 2 tablespoons in a soup that makes 10 or so servings. But yes, you can leave out those if you'd like. ~ karen!
Is the 'generals' dosing of salt and pepper more the the 'colonels' dosing? ? (Gotta love autocorrect!)
Karen: Just a quick question about the pumpkin soup. Do you puree the soup with the squash peel and all. Thank you.
Hi Rina! No, no. :) You scrape the pumpkin/squash out of the peel before pureeing. ~ karen!
YEA! I found my old pumpkin pie recipe - lost it several years ago and no other has been as good but I see you have it and now I'm a happy camper. Pumpkin pie is my favorite. But I haven't tried your soup yet so will have to wait until I cook it this weekend. Sounds delicious. So glad I read the comments so I knew to get shelled seeds. Always love reading your comments, even this old.
It was a rainy gloomy day today, so soup was called for. The soup was delicious! But the topping was sooooooo good. Perhaps bacon pepita granola would work?
Wanted to let you know that I couldn't wait to make this soup! Went to our local farmers market yesterday and bought appropriate squashes (I mixed acorn and butternut). Made the soup today. As a matter of fact my hubby is finishing his bowl as I type. Fabulous! Only change I made was to add a 1/4 dry white wine (cuz I rarely cook anything without wine). This recipe is a keeper!
Excellent. Glad you liked it. Of course I have to know if you made the topping. ~ karen!
Yes! Well....kinda.... I'm just not a rule follower so it would've been highly irregular for me to follow the recipe (or anything in life) exactly as written (or told). I didn't have pepitas. I contemplated getting them but it's a 45 minute drive one way and I just couldn't see the real need for a drive (there are days I would jump in the car and drive for a box of raisins) but yesterday wasn't the day. I browned the bacon (cut precisely as you said -shock - perfect size!) and added the brown sugar but I didn't think it was "caramelly" enough so I added 100% Canadian Maple syrup, because there is no other kind to use, in my book. I happened to have fresh sage so that got a fry up too. I have enough for another bowl a piece tonight and have decided to make a large batch this weekend and can it. Yup. It was that good!
A friend at work just said to me, "oh, I saw butternut squash at the market. I"m going to bring it in so you can make soup." To most people, this would be weird. But, not to me. I am the maker of things around here. Now, she can bring it in and I will have a recipe to follow even:)
LOL. Sounds weird and logial all at the same time to me. :) ~ karen!
I can make the topping, but the roasted veg won't make it to the soup pot if I make it. I'll have to ask hubby. He is a much better cook than I am anyways and makes amazing soup.
I just made it with a butternut sqush and it was fabulous! I love it when I see a great recipe and already have the ingredients
I have a miserable cold so I may have over-peppered it a little (test will be when my kids try it), but I had a bowl for lunch and feel better already.
Thanks for sharing!
I CANNOT believe you already made it, LOL. Good for you! Hope you feel better. ~ karen!
Hey Karen,
Do you have any recipes involving pie pumpkins? I have 2 that have been sitting on my pantry shelf for a few weeks now....just staring at me...wanting to be cooked into something delicious.
I could just google something, but I know I can trust your recipes! Any recommendations?
Also, I agree with you, soup is good. Nuff said :)
Agnes - WEll you could make my pumpkin pie recipe which is delicious! Or you could try making this soup with pie pumpkins. I'm really to know how it would be. You can also just roast the pumpkin in the oven and serve it how you would normally serve squash. I personally would add a tiny bit of brown sugar or maple syrup, salt, pepper and fresh minced ginger. (instructions on how to roast pumpkin in my pie post) :) ~ karen!
My mouth is watering! I'm definitely making this this weekend!
What beautiful pics..I will have to stop myself from just eating the roasted veggies..One question..do you use fresh seeds or packaged seeds?? This is going to be an awesome meal this weekend!
Hi Nancy - I just buy the seeds in bulk. ~ karen!
Yummy. I just made a squash soup using buttercup squash. So good. I will have to give this recipe a go.
Hi Karen
This soup looks great...I will definitely try it...but...can I just buy pumpkin seeds? I would assume yes, since no one else has asked...
You mean for the topping? Yes. Absolutely. They're often labelled pepitas in stores. They have no shell and are small and green. ~ karen!
But correct me if I'm wrong, the squash you just roasted has seeds. Won't that work?
It does, but there actually aren't enough seeds in the squash for what you need for the recipe. Also, removing pumpkin/squash seeds from their shells is a HUGE pain. (you just use the interior seed, not the whole shell and seed) ~ karen!
Noted. Thanks Karen! I usually have pepitas on hand anyway. I just love them on top of... Everything.
Me TOO! They're my favourite thing to put in a salad this time of year! ~ karen
You can also find them at Bulk Barn stores. In shell, or out, salted or not. I like the shelled, roasted, salted; easy to scoff down by the handful. Or top off a soup, of course. And I love this recipe. Must try!