Pumpkin Soup Puree

Okay, time to stop procrastinating and use up that pumpkin from my sister that I talked about here.

It seems I already waited a little too long as the stem had fallen off due to molding. I know, gross!! I was so embarrassed that I left that part out of the picture. Silly, right? After seeing the mold, some people might have just thrown it out. Not me. I'll just cut off any mold and use what I can.

Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get started. First I cut off that mold from the top of the pumpkin. Next I sliced it down the middle. Umm, yeah, I tried to slice it down the middle but once I got started it veered off in it's own direction. I cracked it open and found there was a little mold on some of the slimy covered seeds. I just removed all of that, too.

The time-consuming part was scraping the seeds, cutting them into slices,

cutting off the outer shell of the pumpkin, and then cutting them into about 2 to 3" pieces.

Now this is where I decided to do things differently from the Butternut Squash Soup Puree. In order to speed things up, I decided to eliminate chopping the vegetables in the food processor and simply boil them, saving myself a step.

After cutting up all the pieces, I placed them into a large pot along with a bag each of my frozen onion and celery. Then I measured out the water and garlic and added it to the pot.

Remember, I like to clean and chop my onion and celery in a food processor and freeze them in baggies for future use. This always saves me a ton of time later.

I turned the burner on high to boil and continued to boil it for one hour to cook and soften the vegetables, stirring occasionally. This soup is also gluten free.

While the soup was cooking, I gathered all the spices. I used all the same spices that I used for the Butternut Squash Soup Puree.

I measured them all out and put in a small bowl, mixed them together and set them aside for adding to the soup later.

At this time the veggies were still quite hard and I had other vegetables I just purchased to make Vegetable Soup Puree with, so, what the heck! I decided to make another batch of soup to freeze. This would save me some time with cleanup as I could use the same utensils, the same pot, and the blender before washing them all up.

I started by washing up the vegetables.

I cut all the veggies up and into smaller pieces. This time I used an extra sweet potato and added some broccoli to my batch. I even used the inside of the broccoli stems. I placed all the vegetables in a bowl until I finished making the first soup.

About this time my first batch of soup was ready for the spices. The vegetables were nice and tender.

I mixed the soup up good and then put some in the blender to puree.

I poured the pureed soup into smaller containers and continued this process until the pot was empty.

Ready for the next batch!

Because I had such luck with the first batch, I decided to follow the same procedure and eliminate chopping the food in the food processor before boiling. So I placed all the vegetables from the bowl into the pot and added a bag each of frozen celery and onion, along with garlic and water.

Following the Vegetable Soup Puree blog recipe, I made a few small changes. I ran water into the blender to rinse it out and used that water for the next batch of soup. I added ten cups of water to this batch since there seemed to be more vegetables than the original recipe.

I didn't use any olive oil since I was boiling everything at once. I also added a little more of the vegan broth base, cayenne pepper, pepper and salt since there were more vegetables.

I turned the burner on high, placed a lid on the pot, and left it cook for one hour, stirring occasionally.

After an hour I checked the tenderness of the vegetables and the carrots weren't tender enough so I continued boiling for 1/2 an hour more. Next time I will cut them into smaller chunks.

I turned the burner off and started blending the vegetables in the blender to a puree. Different vegetables ended up in the blender at different times but I figured that would just make the soup taste a tad different each time.

Once again I repeated this process until the pot was empty. I had a nice couple batches of soup when finished. I let them cool before placing the covers on and putting them in my freezer. Now I'm all set for a few weeks of lunch at work.

After cleaning everything up and putting everything away, I started writing this blog and realized that I totally forgot to add the almond milk to the second batch. Oh well. Not going to stress about it.

Note: After freezing the previous soups and taking them out to thaw, this is what I noticed. The squash seemed to separate from the water but after heating in the microwave and stirring, the consistency was fine. The other thing I noticed was that the almond milk seemed like it floated to the top. That's my humble opinion as when I took the cover off the jars, there was a whiter look to the soup.

Food photography is something I am trying to work on but have a lot to learn. A special thanks to my daughter, Keisha, for her help in taking the following photos. 

Yummy, doesn't that look good? And now for the recipes.

Pumpkin Soup Puree

1 pumpkin, cut into pieces

Several pieces of cauliflower

2 t. minced garlic

1 c. onion, chopped

1 c. celery, chopped

7 c. water

7 t. vegan broth base seasoning

1/4 t. cayenne
1 t. mustard seed
1 t. turmeric
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. cumin
1/2 t. sea salt

Clean and cut all vegetables, then put in large pot. Add water and garlic and turn on high to bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for one hour or until vegetables are soft. Puree soup mixture in a blender. Store in smaller containers and freeze. Thaw and reheat when needed.

This Vegetable Soup Puree recipe:

Vegetable Soup Puree

1 Delicata squash

2 large sweet potatoes

Several pieces of cauliflower
Several pieces of broccoli
Several pieces of carrots
1 c. celery, chopped

1 c. onion, chopped

1-1/2 t. minced garlic

10 c. water

10 t. vegan broth base seasoning

1 t. cayenne

1/4 t. pepper

1/2 t. sea salt

Clean and cut all vegetables into 2 to 3" pieces, then place in large pot. Add water and garlic and turn on high to bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for one hour or until vegetables are soft. Puree soup mixture in a blender. Store in smaller containers and freeze. Thaw and reheat when needed.


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