An Experiment of Substitution

I was feeling frisky at the grocery store on one of my large trips to get nourishment supplies for our house. I ended up getting a pumpkin on a whim. Rather than carving it just for halloween purposes I decided to get crazy and make this curry pumpkin soup. I made a few substitutions and made a little more than the recipe called for because I am a huge fan of making large amounts of soups and freezing them for a later time.

Curry Pumpkin Soup


2 tbs pumpkin seeds (optional)
2 tbs butter
3 tbs all purpose flour
2 tbs curry powder
4 cups vegetable broth
1 (29 oz) can pumpkin
1.5 cups of half-and-half cream
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs white sugar
salt and pepper to taste

I began by cutting into the pumpkin

To begin, I didn't get a can of pumpkin. I used an actual one that I picked up from the grocery store. This one was about medium sized. This is the beginning of my substitution highway.
I started out cutting into it which ended up being a little difficult because it wasn't as ripe as I wished it would have been. So, in order to get the most of it- I rubbed some sea salt on the cut chunks of pumpkin. I then wrapped it in aluminum foil and stuck it in the oven (broil temp) for a while just to get the pumpkin to sweat. 15 minutes might be good enough, but keep checking on it. Different pumpkins sweat at different rates.

melting about a stick of butter

Meanwhile: On the Stove

•  The recipe called for you to mix the flour and curry powder until it became smooth. With the amount that the recipe gave I found it to be a little difficult to work with such a small portion. So I kept adding the broth at that time.

Also: if you find yourself running low on something like butter once you've started cooking (I find myself having to do this quite often) you can substitute butter for oil or something like this. 

• Once the mixture becomes smooth, start adding in your half-n-half. (I also ran out of half-n-half, so I used Silk soy milk. Which I can say was a good call because of the special flavor it has.
• At this time you can add your soy sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper.

Also: I used a sugar substitute in this recipe. It didn't change the dynamic of the soup. Then, I added some cinnamon to the mixture my house thanked me for the aromas.

After my added Soy, milk & etc.

using a whisk sure helped things

Now, I didn't forget to take that pumpkin out of the oven. 

• Using a spoon, I scraped all of the "guts" out. Pick out the seeds and place them on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil sheet making sure to not over lap them when placing them on there. After that, just throw the seedless "guts" into the soup. 
• Bake the seeds in the oven for about 5 minutes on a heat of about 375 F*. Keep a watchful eye on them. They will burn before you even realize it. A light tan color is desired. 

look at how thick that soup is!

• Because the soup was SO thick I thinned it out with some water. 

Don't forget about your seeds! Once you have pulled them out of the oven they don't take long at all to cool. (not EVEN a minute) 

sprinkle them on your bowl before you eat and voila!

Finished product

I substituted a lot of things in the recipe. Tasting all throughout the process. The soup ended up having a little bite. I like that. Substitutions don't always give you the product you want, either it's a good thing or a bad one. It is fun though. Cooking is all about experimenting with your taste buds and this one really paid off.
If you make too much or too many soups you can always freeze them for a later use or send them to your friend. My mother and I always love making them and exchanging. Her taco soup is unbeatable.

Happy Snuggling my friends!