Pumpkin (or squash) Soup & Easy Lentil Soup

I thought I would share the following two non-recipes I wrote down for my Aunt Nan after I made it when she was visiting last Thanksgiving.  I actually served it in the toasted hollowed out pumpkin.  In America I had more tools and seasoning.  Here in Israel, I just bought a food processor and I don't use boxed broth.

I scraped out all the meat from the pumpkin (or roast the squash until you can peel off the skin easily) (toss the seeds). For Pumpkin - I would start this roasting in the oven if you have that available, but you'll need a really big pan (otherwise just add raw and cook longer).  Then I fried up 3 chopped carrots, 3 stalks of celery, I think 1-2 onions, a couple cloves of garlic, mushrooms and anything else you want (less for smaller squash).  When it's soft, add more oil and flour (I guess this is optional, but I like the flavor it adds to creamy, non-dairy soups.)  I use grapeseed oil, canola is fine.  Let the flour cook and keep scraping the bottom.  Add a little broth now if it's sticking too much.  Add the pumpkin (if it's still raw, it just takes longer)  Here I added a whole carton of "Imagine No-chicken broth", but you could use other liquids, and scrape up all the flour.  Add any fresh herbs like thyme, sage, or rosemary.  My soup comes out a little greenish, but it's yummy, use less herbs if this would bother you.  While it's cooking/simmering add other seasonings.  I like to pull my spices out and sniff them to decide on a good combination, but for this soup, I used a mix of savory (listed above) and sweeter: nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice...  Sea salt, a little fresh ground pepper or chili pepper, I added a drop of honey and agave syrup...You could probably get away with less or different ingredients, I'm just trying to remember what I did.  When everything if soft and smells good, blend with a hand blender or in food processor.

For an easy lentil soup:  You start as above, but skip the sweet flavorings, and use fresh thyme or lavender (leaves only) and definitely use flour.  You will use about 2 cans of lentils (I like the organic red lentils), but blend after adding only half a can and all the spices.  You can blend out a few chunks or random areas at the end, but I like the mouth feel of having a creamy soup with lentils still intact.

A delicious variation I just tried was more Indian style I used more fresh garlic, lots of Cumin, chili powder, a little ginger, and cinnamon, and a can of tomatoes (added in the beginning and completely blended).  Good luck!

You might also like: Hearty Lentil Soup