Pumpkin Peanut Soup

Mirj's Note:

The combination of peanut butter and cream, makes this unusual soup very rich. It goes together in a snap for an elegant first course. A hollowed out fresh pumpkin shell makes a unique serving tureen

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 medium onion
• 2 stalks celery
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 5 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin
• ½ cup heavy cream or ½ cup half-and-half
• ½ teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 ½ teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Finely mince the onion and celery.
2. Either use a garlic press for the garlic or mince extremely fine.
3. Melt the butter in your stock pot and sauté the onion, celery and garlic in the butter for about five minutes or until soft.
4. Add flour and stir for a minute or two until it's disolved.
5. Add the stock, followed by the remaining indgredients, whisking the mixture so it remains smooth.
6. Simmer for about fifteen minutes and serve.

Reviews

[Chef #bees_wing]

Excellent! I used 1/2 cup low fat peanut butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 4 cups chicken stock rather than 5 vegetable, and one can of fat-free evaporated cream. It turned out wonderful. My DH really enjoyed it and couldn't quite identify the peanut butter taste. To him it tasted like a soup cooked out over an open fire. This is a keeper. Thanks, Mirj.

[Debbie R.]

Sumptuous, thick texture. The balance between pumpkin and pb is perfect. I had to spice it up alot. Since I didn't have celery, I threw in a littl curry powder because it smelled like celery. I think nonfat evaporated milk could easily be used instead of the cream. My husband tends to cal my soups "gulag soups". He couldn't with this one! And....he went back for a second bowl. Yummy good.

[Leahcooks]

Yum! What a great soup. Something different. I used no sugar peanut butter so ended up putting 1/4 cup of brown sugar into it since I assumed the PB in the ingredients had sugar in it. I also subbed heavy cream for sour cream, since I didn't have any on hand. I'm serving it to my mom who just had surgery on her mouth and needs "soft" foods. I hope she likes it as much as I did!