Roasted Pumpkin Soup

How we make it.

1 pie pumpkin (or to bypass pumpkin wrangling, 1-15ounce can pumpkin puree)
1 red onion
1 head of garlic
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1-13.5 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
4 cups chicken stock
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper 
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 cup lime juice (about 1 lime)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Carefully cut the top and bottom off your pumpkin, then cut whole pumpkin in half and scrape out guts. Slice head of garlic in half, cross wise. Peel red onion and cut into 8 chunks. Put all of the vegetables on a roasting pan, toss with olive oil, salt and paper. Place halves of garlic heads cut side down inside pumpkin halves. Roast for an hour. 

After an hour, remove from oven, cover with foil and let sit to continue steaming for 15 minutes. Once cool enough to handle peel skin off pumpkin and place flesh into a blender with coconut milk, onion and garlic cloves, squeezed out of the skin. Blend until smooth. Pour mixture into large dutch oven or soup pot. Add chicken stock, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cumin. Bring soup to a boil and then lower to medium low. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the juice of a lime and maple syrup. Enjoy warm with a baguette.

Why we make it.

I've been waiting for soup season but unwilling to slurp while still sweating. Fall takes forever to arrive in this town. This morning it was 49 degrees when I dropped my son at football practice, so I bought a pie pumpkin on the way home and got to roastin'. This pumpkin soup is as fun to make as it is to eat. While you can absolutely substitute a can of pumpkin puree for roasting a whole pumpkin (and I probably will next time), everyone should roast a pumpkin once in their life. Just to know it can be done. Full of the earthy flavors of roasted garlic and cumin, this coconut creamy soup is brightened with lime juice and lightly sweetened with a splash of maple syrup. Savory and complex, you'll want to run a crackly baguette right through this golden pumpkin puddle. That's why we make it.