PUMPKIN CHEESE SOUP

Cheese soup in a pumpkin shell

This recipe came from the 1983 Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, and was published in our local newspaper in 1984.

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

1 pumpkin (big enough to hold 6-10 servings of soup)
2 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, shredded
2 celery sticks, chopped
4 cups vegetable broth
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup light cream
1 cup cheddar or gruyere cheese, grated
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp parsley, minced

Procedure

Preheat oven to Butter a baking sheet.
Prepare pumpkin: cut off the top, scoop out seeds, brush inside with 2 Tbsp melted butter. Replace top and place pumpkin on baking sheet. Bake 45 mins or until tender when pierced with a fork. The pumpkin should be a bit droopy but still hold its shape well.
Meanwhile, melt 2 Tbsp butter in a big saucepan. Add onion, carrots, celery. Sautae until soft, about 10 mins. Add broth, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Cool slightly.
Puree vegetable mixture in 2 or 3 batches in a blender or food processor. Put back in saucepan; stir in the cream. Reheat. Add cheese and wine, heat until cheese melts. Stir frequently after adding milk to avoid scorching.
Place hot pumpkin on serving platter. Pour in soup. Sprinkle with parsley.

Notes

Serve the soup by ladling out of the pumpkin at the table, scopping a little bit of pumpkin into each serving. The pumpkin then makes a great centerpiece for your table, while allowing people to have second helpings.

I use half greyere and half cheddar. Shred the cheeses very finely so they will melt rapidly. After the soup is all gone, the pumpkin can be cut up, washed, and used in pumpkin pie. It may need more baking to become soft enough to puree for the pies.

It was impossible to find pumpkins after Halloween near San Francisco, but fortunately they keep for a month until Thanksgiving in a cool area if left uncut.

In North America, light cream is often called "half and half".

Rating

Difficulty: moderate.
Time: 1 hour.
Precision: approximate measurement OK.

Contributor

 
Judy Anderson 
Lucid, Inc., Menlo Park, California, USA 
decwrl!spar!edsel!yduJ

Recipe last modified: 5 Nov 87

Original header

Path: decwrl!recipes
From: yduJ@edsel.uucp (Judy Anderson)
Newsgroups: alt.gourmand
Subject: RECIPE: Pumpkin cheese soup
Message-ID: <12131@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 15 Nov 87 16:36:55 GMT
Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
Distribution: alt
Organization: Lucid, Inc. Menlo Park, CA
Lines: 95
Approved: reid@decwrl.dec.com

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