Roasted Whole Pumpkin Soup

 

2010 

By Jessica CameronRoasted Whole Pumpkin Soup

• 1 Medium Pumpkin (5-7 lbs)
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 x 12” loaves French Bread Baguettes (slightly stale)
• 7oz Swiss Cheese
• 8oz Gruyere Cheese
• 8oz Pecorini Romano Cheese
• 2pts Heavy Whipping Cream
• Fresh Thyme
• 3-4 Cups Dry White Wine
• 1 Sweet Onion (medium sliced)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cut into your pumpkin leaving the ‘lid’ usable. Set the lid aside after cleaning off the seeds. Clean out the seeds and membranes of the remaining pumpkin shell, but leave the inside flesh in tact.  Slice the bread in slices approximately 1 inch thick.  Grate the cheeses to a medium grate. Pull the thyme leaves off their stems and roughly chop.  Slice your onions to a medium to thin slice. Once prepping all your ingredients, butter the inside of your cleaned out pumpkin thoroughly.  Start your first layer, but laying bread along the bottom of the pumpkin until the bottom is thoroughly covered.  Then cover the bread with a layer of your three shredded cheeses.  Then sprinkle your chopped thyme over that layer and lay a thin layer of onions.  Take your heavy cream and pour it over that layer until the layer is soaked.  Additinally, add sprinkling of dry white wine.  Repeat this layer process until you get within an inch or two of the top.  Just so the top of the pumpkin fits snuggly on the shell without displacing any of the filling.  You should get 3 to 4 layers depending on your pumpkin.

Once you get the pumpkin filled, cap in place, put the pumpkin in a rimmed dish that will catch any spillage from the baking pumpkin.  Put your pumpkin in the over for 1 ½ hours at 350 degrees.  Your pumpkin should be a rich, golden orange when it’s done.  Let it rest 10-15 minutes as the cheese will be too hot to eat.  Once you feel it’s reached an edible temperature, bring your pumpkin to the table and you can do a table top service. The pumpkin looks impressive and smells divine.  Take a shallow soup bowl and a large metal serving spoon.  Remove the cap of the pumpkin, and scrape the spoon along the inside of the pumpkin shell to remove cooked pumpkin ‘meat’.  Do this until you get the desired amount, and scoop the bread, cream, onions, thyme mixture into the bowl as well.  Enjoy a rich, comforting, tasty, cheesy pumpkin soup, and you only used one pan!

A great cool weather fall soup! Remember, pumpkins are hard to find after October so that’s the perfect time to try this soup!  It has always been a crowd pleaser for me.  It is very rich so you will get plenty out of this pumpkin (8-10 servings).

Comments

[Lindsay Wong]

This is such a beautiful looking recipe. Great photo!

[Eddy]

We're making this again tonight ! The house smells wonderful...Even got a few compliments from trick or treaters about the lovely smell wafting out the front door.

Ed