I laughed so hard when I saw a post on Facebook with a near naked fellow covered in pumpkins and asked myself - has our pumpkin craze gone too far? What started with the pumpkin spice latte has lead to pumpkin EVERYTHING - I even saw limited edition pumpkin spice english muffins at Kroger, barbara's pumpkin puffins, and pumpkin clif bars. It looks like pumpkins yakked all over Kroger and made it into every product!
Not wanting to be the pumpkin grinch, I am jumping in and sharing my favorite pumpkin soup recipe. The recipe is from my mom's German friend, Christa Jent, who also shared the Hungarian Mushroom soup recipe with us a few years back that has been a GREAT hit with my Roanoke friends. Thank you, Christa, for another hit!
Pumpkin Soup
*I always double this recipe*
16 ounce can of pumpkin
1 shallot, diced
1 Tablespoon butter
1/4 cup vermouth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup of half and half
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon curry powder
Saute the shallot in butter until soft, then add remaining ingredients and cook until hot. Serve with a nice baguette and fresh garden salad.
I worked night shift on Valentine's day and our monthly anniversary (the 13th, we're that silly) and so I wanted to make a REALLY special recipe this weekend to celebrate. I had about 100 recipes on my radar and had to narrow it down to just one! It's so hard NOT to make our favorite seared cast iron medium-rare filet on celebration nights, but I was determined.
My mom came to town raving about this rich, velvety, soul-warming mushroom soup that one of her close German friends made for her on a rainy day. She emailed me the recipe, and I was totally expecting to spend 3-4 hours in the kitchen with a spatula in hand fussing over a fancy soup. SURPRISE! This soup is SO EASY to prepare. Josh helped me slice the mushrooms and the soup was ready in about an hour. I highly recommend a good crunchy loaf of bread on the side for dipping.
Hungarian Mushroom Soup
from allrecipes.com
4T unsalted butter
2 cups finely chopped onions
1 lb fresh mushrooms (I used a variety), sliced
2 tsp dried dill
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk (or fat free half and half)
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp lemon juice (I cut this back to 1 tsp after reading other reviews)
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/2 cup sour cream
- Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute the onions in the butter for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute for 5 more minutes. Stir in the dill, paprika, soy sauce and broth. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk the milk and flour together. Pour this into the soup and stir well to blend. Cover and simmer for 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Finally, stir in the salt, ground black pepper, lemon juice, parsley and sour cream. Mix together and allow to heat through over low heat, about 3 to 5 minutes. Do not boil. Serve immediately. May add dollop sour cream to top of each bowl.
Bon Appetite!
