A velvety pumpkin and potato soup simmered in water, blended with crème fraîche and served with toasted pumpkin seeds.
It’s been raining since morning, it’s dark before 6 p.m., and you want a bowl you can hold in both hands. This soup arrives bright orange and smooth, with the almost sugary sweetness of pumpkin.
A swirl of ice-cold crème fraîche melts into the heat, and the toasted pumpkin seeds crunch between your teeth. Three vegetables and a little nutmeg, yet you still end up scraping the bottom of the bowl.
What Is Pumpkin Soup?
It’s France’s everyday pumpkin soup, one of the vegetable soups made from October through the end of winter. Pumpkin, potatoes and an onion cook in water, then get blended with thick crème fraîche. Pepper and grated nutmeg are the only seasoning. To serve, each bowl gets a swirled spoonful of cream and some toasted pumpkin seeds.
French cooking tells two kinds of pumpkin apart. The carving pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) has watery, stringy flesh and is mostly kept for Halloween jack-o’-lanterns. The flatter cooking pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) has dense, sweet flesh that makes a thick, velvety soup, a far cry from the clear broth you get with winter melon.
From La Varenne’s Pottages to a Weeknight Cream Soup
Squashes are native to the Americas and reached Europe in the 16th century, after Christopher Columbus’s voyages. In 1651, François Pierre de La Varenne published Le Cuisinier françois, which included two pumpkin pottages, one made with butter and the other with milk, both served over toasted bread.
French gardeners later bred denser pumpkins, such as Rouge Vif d’Étampes, still sold at fall markets. Potatoes gradually replaced bread as the thickener for the soup. Like French onion soup, it’s a cold-weather soup that starts with inexpensive vegetables and a single pot.
The Main Ingredients in Pumpkin Soup
A good-sized wedge of pumpkin, about 750 g, forms the base: peel it and remove the seeds and stringy fibers. Two medium potatoes thicken the soup with their starch, with no flour or bread. An onion softened in olive oil without browning provides the aromatic base. With a red kuri squash, you can also make a homemade squash puree.
The vegetables cook in water, with no stock or milk, so the pumpkin flavor stays clean. Save the cooking water to adjust the texture. The thick crème fraîche goes onto the drained vegetables just before blending, then pepper and grated nutmeg finish the seasoning.
To serve, a spoonful of crème fraîche drawn out into a swirl and some dry-toasted pumpkin seeds add freshness and crunch. This finishing touch is optional, since the cream is already in the soup.
Technique Tips for a Silky-Smooth Soup
Sauté the onion over medium-low heat until translucent, without letting it brown. The vegetables are done when the pumpkin flesh mashes easily with a fork.
Add the cooking water a little at a time as you blend: it determines the texture, from a thick, velvety soup to a thinner one. Grate the nutmeg directly into the soup, stir, and serve right away.
Ingredients
Preparing the vegetables
- 750 g pumpkin 1 large wedge
- 2 potatoes medium-sized
- 1 onion
Cooking
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Water just enough to cover the vegetables
- Salt
Blending and finishing
- 100 ml thick crème fraîche
- Pepper
- Nutmeg
To serve
- 4 tablespoons thick crème fraîche
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
Instructions
Preparing the vegetables
- Cut the pumpkin into pieces.750 g pumpkin
- Peel each piece, then remove the stringy fibers and the seeds.
- Peel the potatoes.2 potatoes
- Cut the potatoes into pieces.
- Rinse the pumpkin and potato pieces, then set them aside.
- Peel the onion.1 onion
- Chop it roughly.
Cooking
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.3 tablespoons olive oil
- Sauté the onion in the oil, stirring, without letting it brown, until it is translucent.
- Add the pumpkin and potato pieces.
- Pour in just enough water to cover the vegetables.Water
- Season with salt.Salt
- Cover the saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender: the pumpkin flesh should mash easily with a fork.
- Turn off the heat.
Blending and finishing
- Drain the vegetables in a colander set over a large bowl, to save the cooking water.
- Add the crème fraîche to the drained vegetables.100 ml thick crème fraîche
- Blend everything in a blender or with an immersion blender, adding the cooking water little by little until you have a smooth, creamy soup, as thick or as thin as you like.
- Season with pepper.Pepper
- Grate the nutmeg directly into the soup, then stir.Nutmeg
To serve
- Toast the pumpkin seeds in a small dry frying pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until they begin to turn golden and crackle.2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
- Pour the soup into the bowls.
- Place a spoonful of crème fraîche in the center of each bowl and swirl it into a spiral with the tip of a spoon.4 tablespoons thick crème fraîche
- Sprinkle with the toasted pumpkin seeds.
- Serve immediately.
