Hearty Pumpkin Soup

It's soup season, and even here in the South we're starting to have some chilly days. Ward them off with this tasty pumpkin soup. No pumpkin spice, but it does have hot pepper, another spice worth more than gold in the spice road days.

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Hearty Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• 2 large carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage
• 1 tablespoon flaked red pepper
• 3 cups vegetable broth (low or no sodium is best so you can control the taste)
• 4 cups pumpkin puree
• crème fraîche (see notes) 

Notes: I made my crème fraîche by mixing 2 parts canned coconut milk with 1 part store-bought vegan sour cream, but if you have more time try this recipe from scratch. Use your choice of flaky red hot peppers. You can use chili flakes, that cracked pepper that you always see in pizza joints, or I used kimchi peppers 'cause I live in that kind of house (see the animated GIF below).

Chop all the veggies and herbs. Saute the onion, carrots, and celery in a skillet for about 10 minutes, or until they start to fill the air with a heavenly smell and get soft.

Turn off the heat and add the sage and flaky red pepper. At this point I moved everything to a slow cooker, 'cause I've got stuff to do, but you can also move things to a saucepan. In either case, add the vegetable stock and the pumpkin and stir.

Either simmer in the sauce pan for about a half-an-hour, occasionally stirring. Or leave in the slow cooker on high for a couple hours while you do other stuff. 

After the soup is cooked, we'll need to blend it up. If you have an immersion blender, use that, if not ladle out the majority of the soup into a regular blender. Pour everything back into the pot once blended.

If you've chosen the slow cooker, turn it down as low as it goes and leave for people to come by and grab a bowl. Or serve immediately if in the saucepan.

Using a creamer, pour some of the crème fraîche over the top of each bowl of soup.

Yums.

Serves 6-8 omnis or 4 vegans 

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This is Day 7, in my 31 Day of Pumpkin Spice. Join in the fun on Twitter with your favorite recipes, quips, or (semi)historical facts by using the hashtag #TeamPumpkinSpice