Caribbean Coconut Pumpkin Soup

Click HERE to watch the YouTube tutorial!

I love this recipe so much I've made it three times in as many months. I had 8 pumpkins that we harvested a month ago that I needed to use up- isn't soup just the best thing for that? I'm pretty proud of the fact that we grew so many of the ingredients for this soup; the pumpkin, scotch bonnet peppers, garlic and thyme. Pretty much as home grown as you can get! I realize that soup isn't a baked good-but a big part of why I wanted to make this blog is to share recipes with the things we've grown- so a soup section will be added! (Plus, I'm just a HUGE soup fan and have a LOT of great recipes to share.)

*This recipe is from a great site called All Recipes

INGREDIENTS:

-2 tbsp. butter

-1 tbsp. olive oil

-2 stalks celery, diced

-2 lg. shallots, diced

-2 scallions, sliced

-2 garlic cloves, minced or crushed

-1 carrot, peeled and chopped

-4 cups raw pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1" cubes

-4 cups chicken or veggie stock

-3 springs fresh lime

-2 bay leaves

-1 scotch bonnet pepper, stemmed

-1/8 tsp. ground allspice

-generous pinch seal salt and ground pepper to taste

-13.5 oz. can coconut milk

-1 lime, juiced

HOW TO:

1.) Put your butter and olive oil in a lg. saucepan over medium heat. Once melted add the celery, carrot, shallot, scallion and garlic and cook until sift, about 5 minutes

2.) Add everything except the coconut milk, lime and salt and pepper and bring to a boil

3.) Turn the heat to low and let simmer (covered) for 45 minutes until the pumpkin is fork tender

4.) Once you remove it from the heat season with salt and pepper to taste

5.) Using a blender or hand mixer blend the soup until smooth, then return to the pot and bring back up to a boil

6.) Stir in the coconut milk and lime juice and let simmer for about 5 minutes

NOTES

*You can garnish the soup with a sprig of thyme, yogurt, pumpkin seeds or tortilla chips

*If you prefer a less acidic and tangy soup, reduce the lime juice to half a lime

*If you can't find scotch bonnet peppers you can substitute with a jalapeno