Meatless Monday: Pumpkin curry soup

This is one of my annual fall favorites, a creamy pumpkin soup with a bit of a spicy kick. This is also for mushroom lovers. (Sorry, ‘shroom haters.) It’s also pretty simple and quick to make before you head out the door to your pumpkin carving party. Or serve it as a first course at your chaotic Thanksgiving gathering when you barely have time to think between timing the turkey and mashing the potatoes.

I always seem to have at least one pumpkin carving party to attend each year. Bostonians may seem passionate about sculpting squash, and perhaps we are, but I think we are really trying to keep very, very busy even as the leaves darken and turn to brilliant gold. Busyness is a thinly disguised attempt to postpone the inevitable: ice and cold. Somehow thrusting bare hands into an orange pumpkin and coming out with a fist full of goop and seeds puts one in the right here and now. Winter can wait.

Back to the soup. There’s nothing really much more to tell you except that I’ve tinkered with it to my liking. I could recommend that you carve out six mini pumpkins and serve the soup in their empty hollows. Gutting a small fleet of pumpkins will keep you very, very busy, after all. But any old bowls will do. And find some nice sourdough bread to go with it.

You’ll glow from within like a jack-o’-lantern. Promise.

Pumpkin Curry Soup
Inspired by "Southern Living"
Serves 4 to 6

Mellow warmth
2 tablespoons butter
1 8-ounce package mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon curry
3 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
1 15-ounce canned pumpkin
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Sour cream, to garnish
Chives, to garnish

Melt the butter in a large soup pan. Add mushrooms and onion and cook until tender, 3-5 minutes, stirring often.

Stir in flour and curry and gradually add chicken broth (or vegetable broth), stirring constantly, until mixture has thickened over medium-high heat.

Stir in pumpkin, honey, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and nutmeg. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in milk and cream and heat thoroughly, stirring constantly. Garnish with sour cream and chives.

Related post: Ginger Cookie Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwiches