Long before I ever had kids, before I ever thought about food allergies, I was an intern in DC and there was this little cafe there that was not too far from where I was living so I went there a lot. I was short on time and money and it was on the way to the Metro stop and very inexpensive. In the fall, one of their specials was pumpkin soup and I could get that and a grilled cheese sandwich for less than $5. I'm assuming if you are reading this blog, you probably are not going to serve this soup with a grilled cheese sandwich, but my memories of this place are all wrapped up in that soup and the grilled cheese sandwich so just bear with me. I cannot tell you how many times I ordered that soup and sandwich combo. I just could not get enough of it. I loved going to that place and it wasn't even nice inside. I just felt so cozy dipping my grilled cheese into my soup.
After I moved, it drove me crazy because I don't think I ever even knew the name of the place and, a few years later, when I tried looking around where I thought it might have been I couldn't find it. So I could never get another bowl of this amazing soup or ask the people (it was always the same 2 people) who worked there how to make it! I spent years, literally years, trying to duplicate the recipe from memory and was always very disappointed. I would go through the trouble of roasting a pumpkin, chopping vegetables, cooking down the soup for a long time and then, after all of that, be supremely let down. The first time I remember making the soup it was not just disappointing, it was terrible; I under cooked the onions so it was kind of crunchy. Crunchy soup is never good.
Imagine my delight when somewhere on the internet I found a recipe for pumpkin pie soup that tasted exactly the way I remembered THE pumpkin soup and it was pretty much the easiest thing in the whole world to make. The original is made with heavy cream but I subbed coconutmilk with excellent results after I went dairy free.
Pumpkin pie soup
Serves 6 as an appetizer
- 1 can pumpkin pie filling (not plain pumpkin)
- 2 cups chicken stock or broth
- 1/2 cup canned coconutmilk (full fat, not reduced fat)
Stir ingredients into a pan and heat. That's it!
I can't decide whether this soup is better hot off the stove or after it has cooled a bit. I think objectively it might taste better room temperature but since the soup of my memories was always warm, I prefer it that way. Try it both ways, see how you like it.
We ate this for dinner yesterday (although I actually don't recommend it as a main dish, because it's too sweet for that). Since I usually try to avoid eating food from cans I normally only indulge in this soup once a year. This year it was extra great because we paired it with New Glarus Pie Lust beer, which I had never had before. The slight bitterness of the beer balanced well with the sweetness of the soup. I know absolutely nothing about pairing alcohol with food and so this recommendation should be taken with a grain of salt. But I daresay the soup went better with the beer than a grilled cheese sandwich...
