
I went to a local pumpkin patch the other day – don’t you just love pumpkin patches? There is just something so enchanting about walking through a sea of plump orange pumpkins. I took home up a few carving pumpkins and a sugar pumpkin. Usually the smaller sugar pumpkins are the ones used for cooking, but I decided to try cooking one of the carving pumpkins just to see how it would turn out.
I sliced the carving pumpkin into large hunks, and scooped out the seeds and the stringy stuff. Then I put the pumpkin pieces on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and baked at 325F for about 90 minutes.

I scooped out the fleshy part and discarded the skin. Then tonight I made pumpkin soup! I love the Thai combination of coconut, chilis, and pumpkin, so I started with those ingredients and went from there.
Vegan Thai Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
- 2 T canola oil
- 4 shallots, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 2 Thai chilis, chopped
- 2 T chopped ginger
- 1 t cinnamon
- 2 1/4 C veggie broth
- 1 can lite coconut milk
- 4 C chopped cooked pumpkin
- 1/2 t Thai chili paste (for extra spice – optional)
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
Directions
- Pour the oil into a large saucepan or stockpot, and heat over low heat. Add the shallots, garlic, chilis, and ginger and saute until the shallots are soft.
- Add the cinnamon, veggie broth, coconut milk, pumpkin, and chili paste. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the flavors have emerged.
- Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Here’s the finished soup, garnished with fresh basil:

I served the soup for dinner, along with thick slices of my homemade Multigrain Bread:

The bread recipe came from a book that Kat lent me, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart and Ron Manville. If you are into baking your own bread, this is a great book as it gives a lot of the explanations on how the recipes work. It’s so interesting and chock full of recipes, so of course I ordered my own copy so that Kat could get her book back! There was one time when I never made bread from scratch, but it’s actually quite easy and not as time consuming as you might thing. Oh and homemade bread tastes amazing
. Now it just seems like such a waste to buy bread!
Do you cook with fresh pumpkin? What do you make with it?

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