Velvety cream soup made from roasted butternut squash, finished with cream, toasted pumpkin seeds, and magenta amaranth microgreens. No sugar: roasting brings the sweetness.
INGREDIENTS
- 800 g - butternut squash, peeled
- 1 tbsp - olive oil
- 1 - yellow onion (100 g)
- 2 cloves - garlic
- 20 g - butter
- 600 ml - vegetable broth, hot
- 100 ml - light cream or half-and-half
- salt, black pepper, a pinch of nutmeg
- 20 g - pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
- 20 g - amaranth microgreens
STEPS
- Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Cut the squash into 1 1/2 in (3-4 cm) chunks, toss with the olive oil and a pinch of salt, and roast on a sheet pan for 30-35 minutes, until the edges brown and a knife slides in easily.
- While the squash roasts, finely chop the onion and garlic and cook them in the butter in a pot over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, until soft but not browned.
- Add the roasted squash to the pot, pour in 500 ml of the hot broth, and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the cream, keeping 4 tbsp for serving, and thin with the rest of the broth to the consistency you like. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and heat through without boiling.
- Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet for 2-3 minutes, until they start to pop.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, add a spoonful of cream to the center of each, set 5 g amaranth microgreens on the cream, and scatter the seeds.
Amaranth Microgreens on Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin cream soup is velvety and sweet, and it needs something fresh on top. Amaranth microgreens with their magenta-red stems bring that, and their mild flavor doesn’t compete with the pumpkin. On an orange soup, the red stems stand out from across the table.
Set the amaranth on a spoonful of cream in the center of the bowl: the cream holds it on the surface so it doesn’t sink into the hot soup.
About the Ingredients
Amaranth microgreens: 20 g for four bowls. Beet microgreens, also red, work as a swap.
Pumpkin: butternut squash or another dense, sweet variety. Watery field pumpkins make a thin, bland soup.
Cream: light cream or half-and-half. Without cream the soup is still thick, just less mellow.
Pumpkin seeds: toast them in a dry skillet for 2-3 minutes, until they start to pop.
Technique: Roast Instead of Boil
Boiled pumpkin gives its flavor away to the water. Roasted at 400°F (200°C) in 1 1/2 in (3-4 cm) chunks for 30-35 minutes, it caramelizes at the edges, and the soup comes out sweeter and deeper without any sugar. Add the broth gradually: thinning a soup is easier than thickening it.
Variations
- With ginger: 1 tsp grated ginger along with the onion.
- With coconut milk: 200 ml coconut milk instead of cream, plus a pinch of curry powder.
- Cheesy: 100 g processed cream cheese stirred into the hot soup until creamy.
- With bacon: crumbled crisp bacon on top with the seeds.
Serving and Storage
The soup keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days, and without the cream it freezes well. Add the cream and microgreens in the bowl. How long an open container of microgreens lasts is in our wiki: microgreen shelf life.
Another fall soup with microgreens: Ukrainian borscht with beet microgreens.
CHEF'S TIPS
The broth is already salty, so salt at the end and to taste.
If the soup is too thin, simmer it uncovered for 5 minutes to cook off some water.
