{"id":193095,"title":"Pumpkin Soup","modified":"2026-10-26T08:30:08+01:00","plain":"A velvety pumpkin and potato soup simmered in water, blended with cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche and served with toasted pumpkin seeds.\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s been raining since morning, it\u2019s 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. \n\n\n\nA swirl of ice-cold cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche 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.\n\n\n\nIts cousin is cooked skin and all: red kuri squash soup\n\n\n\nWhat Is Pumpkin Soup?\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s France\u2019s 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 cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche. Pepper and grated nutmeg are the only seasoning. To serve, each bowl gets a swirled spoonful of cream and some toasted pumpkin seeds.\n\n\n\nFrench cooking tells two kinds of pumpkin apart. The carving pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) has watery, stringy flesh and is mostly kept for Halloween jack-o\u2019-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.\n\n\n\nFrom La Varenne\u2019s Pottages to a Weeknight Cream Soup\n\n\n\nSquashes are native to the Americas and reached Europe in the 16th century, after Christopher Columbus\u2019s voyages. In 1651, Fran\u00e7ois Pierre de La Varenne published Le Cuisinier fran\u00e7ois, which included two pumpkin pottages, one made with butter and the other with milk, both served over toasted bread.\n\n\n\nPumpkin also finds its way into a chicken and Roquefort lasagna made without pasta\n\n\n\nFrench gardeners later bred denser pumpkins, such as Rouge Vif d\u2019\u00c9tampes, still sold at fall markets. Potatoes gradually replaced bread as the thickener for the soup. Like French onion soup, it\u2019s a cold-weather soup that starts with inexpensive vegetables and a single pot.\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Pumpkin Soup\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA 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.\n\n\n\nThe 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 cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche goes onto the drained vegetables just before blending, then pepper and grated nutmeg finish the seasoning.\n\n\n\nTo serve, a spoonful of cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche 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.\n\n\n\nTechnique Tips for a Silky-Smooth Soup\n\n\n\nSaut\u00e9 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.\n\n\n\nFor dessert, pumpkin returns as pumpkin pie\n\n\n\nAdd 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.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tPumpkin Soup\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tPreparing the vegetables750 g pumpkin (1 large wedge)2 potatoes (medium-sized)1 onionCooking3 tablespoons olive oilWater (just enough to cover the vegetables)SaltBlending and finishing100 ml thick cr\u00e8me fra\u00eechePepperNutmegTo serve4 tablespoons thick cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds\t\n\t\n\t\tPreparing the vegetablesCut the pumpkin into pieces.Peel each piece, then remove the stringy fibers and the seeds.Peel the potatoes.Cut the potatoes into pieces.Rinse the pumpkin and potato pieces, then set them aside.Peel the onion.Chop it roughly.CookingHeat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.Saut\u00e9 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.Season with 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 finishingDrain the vegetables in a colander set over a large bowl, to save the cooking water.Add the cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche to the drained vegetables.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.Grate the nutmeg directly into the soup, then stir.To serveToast 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.Pour the soup into the bowls.Place a spoonful of cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche in the center of each bowl and swirl it into a spiral with the tip of a spoon.Sprinkle with the toasted pumpkin seeds.Serve immediately.\t\n\t\n\t\tThis is an everyday cream of pumpkin soup, enriched with cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche for a silky texture. The cream is already blended into the soup; the spiral spoonful and the toasted pumpkin seeds on top are a finishing touch for serving, and you can skip them.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tSoupes et bouillonsFran\u00e7aise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}