Recipe from "The Tipsy Vegan"
Adapted by Tara Parker-Pope
- Total Time
- About 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- 4(271)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Straight from the rum bottle … I mean, pumpkin patch, this curried soup is autumn in a bowl. —Tara Parker-Pope
Featured in: Happy Hour at the Thanksgiving Table
Learn: How to Make Soup
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Ingredients
Yield:6 servings
- 1(4- to 5-pound) pumpkin (reserve the seeds) or 2 (14-ounce) cans pumpkin purée (plain, not the pumpkin pie purée)
- 2tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- ½cup finely chopped shallots
- 5cups vegetable stock
- 1medium russet potato, peeled and chopped into ½-inch chunks
- 1large carrot, peeled and sliced crosswise into ½-inch pieces
- 1tablespoon dark brown sugar
- 2teaspoons molasses
- Finely minced zest of 1 orange
- 2teaspoons curry powder
- 1cup soy milk or other nondairy milk
- ½cup dark rum
- Dash of Tabasco sauce
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- ½teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1½cups grated vegan sharp cheddar cheese, or nutritional yeast (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
445 calories; 19 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 49 grams carbohydrates; 13 grams dietary fiber; 20 grams sugars; 14 grams protein; 1669 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Preparation
Step
1
To prepare the pumpkin: Cut the pumpkin in half through the center and scoop out the seeds and strings. Reserve the seeds. Carefully cut away the hard peel with a paring knife — or, better, a vegetable peeler — and chop the flesh. You should have about 6 cups of pumpkin flesh.
Step
2
In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the olive oil with the sesame oil. Add the shallots and sauté them, stirring occasionally, until they are translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the stock, pumpkin, potato and carrot, raise the heat to high, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.
Step
3
Using an immersion blender, purée the soup until very smooth, or (carefully!) purée in batches in a blender with a towel placed over the lid. Stir in the brown sugar, molasses, orange zest and curry powder. Over low heat, stir in the soy milk, dark rum and Tabasco sauce. Taste carefully. Season with salt and pepper and add the nutmeg.
Step
4
Toast the pumpkin seeds. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. In a roomy bowl, stir the seeds with peanut oil or canola oil — about a half cup of oil for every four cups of seeds. Add a nominal amount of kosher salt. Try adding a bit of thyme, oregano, cumin, coriander, cardamom and/or cayenne pepper, if you like.
Step
5
Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Spread the seeds in one layer on the sheets. Toast slowly for about an hour, checking them every 10 to 15 minutes and stirring if they are browning unevenly. Store the toasted seeds in tightly sealed containers lined with paper towels.
Step
6
Serve soup in warmed bowls, and pass the toasted pumpkin seeds and vegan cheddar cheese for sprinkling.
Ratings
4
out of 5
271
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Kathleen
Maybe the orange I used was too big, because the only flavor is orange! Very disappointing. Recipes with ingredients like "the peel of one orange" might include a disclaimer such as "the peel of a small orange" or even better, "!/4 cup of orange rind"!
Please be more specific about such savory ingredients.
Kerstin
Could i prepare early and I freeze this to serve on thanksgiving?
Justy
The best pumpkin soup ever! The rum makes the pumpkin flavor more intensive, I've already made it many times and many times will follow!
Annie
Best pumpkin soup I have ever made! The rum and molasses bring a wonderful richness ... I will spare you the non-sense about being allergic to soy milk and just say whole milk and chicken broth make excellent substitutions.
weezy
I can't speak to adding rum, but I strongly advise against adding brandy. Had to pour this one down the toilet, sadly.
Brandon
I'm a big pumpkin lover and this soup was a major miss for me. As someone else said, the orange is way too intense. But what is really killing me is the bitterness and alcoholic finish (tastes like enough alcohol that I shouldn't drive after having more than a bowl). I was faithful to the recipe (except using cow milk) and the balance of flavors was just way off.
K'tin
I'm so glad I read the notes. This is delicious, but I definitely made some changes. Left out the soy milk entirely because the texture without it was just what I wanted. Cut the rum down to one tablespoon. Zested about a third of an orange. This is a really tasty, balanced soup. Thanks all!
Jasmine
Sadly this soup was not a winner and won't likely try making again :( I used a 151 proof rum which is what I had in my house for making dark and stormy drinks. I thought I fixed the soup after adding more puree and other ingredients but after I froze it and reheated for Thanksgiving the rum taste was overwhelmingly strong.
Jasmine
So I made this today and plan to freeze and defrost for Thanksgiving. I used dark rum 151 proof I bought in Bermuda and I don't know if it was the rum or not, but the rum taste was too strong so I tried adding in a little more pumpkin puree, sugar and salt which helped but rum was still too strong so I added fresh squeezed orange juice and that worked!
Pam
I don't have any dark rum and don't drink, so may I substitute cooking sherry or Madeira?
Sally
This is my favorite pumpkin soup. I leave out the sugar and use Maker's Mark whiskey. Soy milk or regular milk work for this vegetarian.
Jenny
My dinner guest asked if they could add heavy cream.
BD
I should have read some of the reviews before making this with my uncooked pumpkin leftover from Halloween. I have to agree with another reviewer who said it was too thin, plus I foolishly added the rum to the "milk" before using the immersion blender and finding it already on the thin side. Now it's very thin and very rummy. What was I thinking, I'm not much of a rum fan. Now I have a large pot of rum soup...to salvage it, perhaps I should try making it into pumpkin co*cktails...?
Leah
This was perfect except it calls for way too much orange. I stopped adding it at about 1/3 of what I had zested and I’m glad I did because the soup was delicious at that point and not overwhelmed by it. Could probably skip the orange altogether
George K.
The bitter note from the rum is very difficult to overcome. Perhaps more sugar or molasses might help, but I didn’t want to cross the savory line. If you use pumpkins from scratch, this is a lot of work for a soup that just isn’t as special or autumnal as I had hoped. And it’s all mine to eat because my wife tried it and hated it. Even the pumpkin seeds do t seem to function correctly for me. On their own they are tasty, in the soup they become excessively chewy.
Christine
This soup is quite thin, next time I would use less liquid. I ended up adding walnuts to it to thicken it. Personally I would leave out the rum next time. I find that it adds a bitterness I don’t like. (I’m also not a huge fan of rum so take what I say with a grain of salt). I’d make this soup again with those adjustments.
Leslie
This is delicious and elegant for any occasion. Has a complex flavor but not very pumpkin-y.Would make it again. Both Vegan and non-Vegan folks would enjoy.
Leslie
Made Vegan Pumpkin Soup. Very elegant could be served to anyone.Delicious favors but not too pumpkin-y favor overall.
Galegamin
The orange peel was very distracting. Ended up straining it. Not my favourite soup.
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