Pumpkin Cream Soup with Parmesan
Quick Recipes Simple Recipes Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian Recipes Vegetables Soups and Stews
What can you make with a real piece of Parmigiano Reggiano, brought with love all the way from Bergamo? Only good things, of course! I loved this soup—it's creamy, substantial yet minimalist, with just 3 main ingredients. And the nice part is that when I use less water, it becomes an extraordinarily good pumpkin puree 😉
Sooo, and so you don't get scared of all that butter and cheese, I calculated that one serving (if you divide the soup into four) has under 250 calories and about 13 grams of fat. I say we're safe.
Ingredients
750 g pumpkin (weight after peeling)
50 g butter
50 g Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano if you have it)
700 ml water
salt, black pepper, piment d'Espelette
For garnish: 4 basil leaves, lightly toasted pine nuts, black pepper, and a little oil
Servings: 3
How to prepare pumpkin cream soup with parmesan
- Peel the pumpkin, remove seeds, and cut into cubes.
- In a wide pot, melt the butter and add the pumpkin. Sweat on low heat with the lid on for 10 minutes. Stir 2-3 times during this time. You'll see the outside of the pumpkin pieces softening and melting into the butter. Don't let the pumpkin brown.
- Add the water, salt, pepper, and chili flakes (1/4 teaspoon), and simmer covered on low heat for 15 minutes. The soup will already smell great and have an attractive orange color.
- Add the grated Parmesan and simmer for another 5 minutes. Check that the pumpkin is cooked.
- Blend the soup in a blender until super creamy. If you want to control the consistency, start by putting only the pumpkin and a little soup in the blender, blend until you have a fine puree, and only then gradually add water with the blender running until you reach the desired consistency. Make sure to taste for salt (the soup tends to be slightly sweet) and grind more black pepper (it goes well with Parmesan).
- For garnish, heat a little oil and fry one basil leaf at a time. Basically just put the leaf in the oil, count to 2, and remove it. Don't leave them longer—the leaves will lose their color, but worse, they'll also lose their taste.
- Divide the soup into 4 bowls, place a basil leaf on top of each, sprinkle with pine nuts, and grind black pepper. Serve hot.
Basil leaves fried for 2 seconds (left) vs those fried longer
