Easy Pumpkin Soup

Name: Easy Pumpkin Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 medium onion (roughly diced); 1 carrot (peeled and roughly chopped); 1 small sweet potato (peeled and roughly chopped); 2 pounds pumpkin (peeled and deseeded, roughly chopped); 5 cups water OR chicken stock; 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin; 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger; 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or less if you're not a huge fan); Salt + pepper (to taste); 1 bay leaf; Cream (to taste (optional))

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4.92 from 49 votes

Jump to Recipe 12/28/17 | Updated: 11/29/20 | by Nora

Is it too late in the year to talk about pumpkin soup?

pumpkin soup in white bowl on wooden board

I love pumpkin soup so much because you can add all the orange vegetables to it, and nobody will notice. Also, it gets all creamy and dreamy without you actually having to add anything that’s creamy and dreamy!

I mostly make pumpkin soup without cream, because it really doesn’t need it. It has so much flavor and silkiness all by itself already. Even my husband has to admit how good this is, and that means a lot coming from him, talking about pumpkin soup.

Recipe tips

Pick a delicious pumpkin. I used a really fun one (I mean, fun as far as pumpkin goes… I’m not that crazy.): A Blue Ballet one. OK, that’s a winter squash. Guilty. You can definitely use a winter squash like Kabocha or Hubbard for this soup if sugar pumpkin in savory dishes makes you feel weird and you’d rather have it in some pumpkin bread.
No color, no flavor: Give the ingredients time to roast before adding the stock. That way you get those deep, golden flavors which really make this soup worthwhile.
Season to taste. I wrote down my suggested seasonings, and while they are amazing, it’s no dealbreaker if you hate ginger and really want to leave it out. I mean, I’ll be sad. But I’ll understand.
Be careful when you blend it. I have burned myself more than once with hot soup, and it’s not fun. Place a clean dishtowel over the soup if you’re blending it with a stick blender. I you’re using a regular blender, read up on what your manufacturer has to say about hot liquids, before you splatter hot soup all over your sweet face and the just-cleaned kitchen.

Step by step photos

All good things start with butter (shhhh… you didn’t hear it from me), so melt some in your largest Dutch oven.

Cut up vegetables for pumpkin soup in a Dutch oven.

Once the butter is melted and bubbly, let’s add all those beautiful vegetables.

Sure, you could do just pumpkin. But it would be awfully lonely in there. So it gets some company in the name of onion, sweet potato and carrot.

Roasting pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot and onion for an easy pumpkin soup.

Now let’s get these roasted.

Don’t be afraid of adding a little color. It’s where the flavor magic happens! Accio flavor.

Once the veggies are all starting to roast, add some salt and spices.

I do ground nutmeg, cumin, ginger and black pepper. You can add cayenne for some heat, but my kids are very vengeful when it comes to spicy food and I value no more than the necessary havoc around mealtimes.

Look, now comes our secret ingredient.

Don’t tell anyone. I add brown sugar to my pumpkin soup.

Why? I like the taste of it.

It’s not like the pumpkin needs more sweetness. But for some reason, that spoon full of brown sugar really adds something to the soup. So, in it goes.

Roasting the vegetables and spices for easy pumpkin soup.

Now comes the hard part… Resisting to stir all the time.

I know it’s hard. Bear with me. Roast those veggies without stirring all the time.

It will be fine.

I know I’m stirring in the photo.

Stop it. Hands away.

Pouring water over the vegetables for easy pumpkin soup.

Now in goes the liquid!

Yes, that’s water. No, it doesn’t taste bland.

Chicken stock is pretty amazing, too.

But chances are, I forget to defrost any chicken stock. So it’s nice to have a recipe that works perfectly fine for the more meal prep challenged among us.

Adding a bay leaf to simmering pumpkin soup.

I’m well aware of the alleged person who got furious because there was a “legit leaf” in her bowl at Chipotle.

Do not worry. That leaf is legit and it’s called bay.

Friend, meet bay. Bay, meet friend.

Great. Now let’s add some bay leaf to our soup for more incredible flavor.

Pot of easy pumpkin soup simmering on the stove.

Now it’s time to simmer this magic pot of soup.

15 minutes will do, so enough time for the dishes and a little dance.

As if I’m the only person singing and dancing over a sink of dirty dishes.

Now all that’s left to do is blending…

Easy pumpkin soup, blended, ladled out of the pot.

… until the soup is nice and smooth.

overhead view of Dutch oven filled with pumpkin soup

Now is the point where you’ll need to try the soup and decide if you want to add cream or not.

It’s absolutely up to you. IF you add cream, warm the soup gently for 2-3 minutes with the cream stirred in, but don’t boil it.

Either way, serve the soup hot and steamy from the pot.

With some crusty bread on the side. That’s a cliché, but also a must.

female hand spooning pumpkin soup out of white bowl

More hearty soups

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Printable recipe

P.S: If you didn’t use your entire pumpkin, you might want to chop up the rest, throw it on a sheet pan and roast it until soft. Then blend it and make these muffins – you won’t regret it.