East Meets West: Curried Pumpkin Soup

Although I love all of the tradition associated with Thanksgiving and the delicious foods that I grew up eating on this holiday, as I mentioned in my last post, I was looking to shake things up a bit this year.  I think that one of the most exciting aspects of cooking is trying out new flavor combinations and I recently came across a recipe for a Pumpkin Shrimp Curry which sounded amazing.  (Although I haven't yet gotten around to giving it a try, I am definitely planning to and I promise to share).  This got me thinking - what if I added the flavors of curry to a traditional pumpkin soup recipe?  The result was so tasty that I may just have to make it a Thanksgiving tradition after all.    

Curried Pumpkin Soup

1 medium white onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp cardamom
1 tsp yellow curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (or chicken if you prefer)
1/2 of a 14 oz can of coconut milk

**Note:  I realize that cardamom and coriander can get expensive and may not be spices that you use very often.  If you don't have these spices lying around and don't feel like investing in them, you can simply double the amount of curry powder that you add to the soup since curry powder already contains these spices.**

Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until translucent (approximately 5 to 10 minutes).  Add garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and curry powder and stir to coat onions.  Cook for about 2 minutes to meld the flavors:

Add salt, red pepper flakes, pumpkin, broth, and coconut milk.  Stir to mix and bring to a simmer.  Cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth (I do not recommend transferring all of the soup to the blender at once - I did this and ended up with hot pumpkin soup all over my kitchen.  Be sure to blend in small batches instead to avoid burning your hand and having to clean the kitchen top to bottom!).  Pour blended soup into bowls and serve with warm crusty bread.