Learn how to make a hearty and healthy pumpkin soup recipe with lentils and sweet potato. This creamy and delicious soup is an excellent healthy and comforting autumnal meal.
What I love about this recipe:
- Ideal for batch-cooking.
- Easy to prepare.
- Made of wholesome ingredients.
My plant-based pumpkin soup recipe is gluten-free, oil-free, low-fat, soy-free, nut-free, peanut-free, grain-free, low glycemic diet friendly, and suitable on vegan Candida diet.
Table of contents
How to Make a Hearty Pumpkin Soup Recipe
I’m happy to let you know that it’s very easy to make this pumpkin soup. You won’t need any special cooking skills or equipment. Needless to say, in order to make puree soup, you’ll have to utilise a regular or an immersion blender.
The Ingredients
Evidently, we start with pumpkin. You may choose any preferred pumpkin variety e.g., butternut squash, calabaza, delicata squash, hubbard squash, kabocha squash, regular pumpkin, or Hokkaido pumpkin aka pie pumpkin.
What’s noteworthy is that I decided to bake the pumpkin instead of boiling with the rest of the ingredients. It’s because I find that baking makes the flavours more intense.
I like to add red lentils to pumpkin soup for additional protein and fibre. I find that the lentils make pumpkin puree soup a lot heartier.
Sometimes it may happen that you cut your pumpkin open and get surprised by a very light-coloured flesh. Often it means that the taste is quite bland as well. So, this is where sweet potato comes to rescue adding richness, sweetness, and deeper colour as well.
However, we are not quite finished with orange vegetables yet because a carrot goes into this pumpkin soup recipe as well. I love carrots in soups for its colour and flavour.
As always, we cannot do without onion and garlic. However, to preserve garlic’s health benefits, it goes into the soup at the end in a crushed form.
Then, I couldn’t imagine a pumpkin soup recipe without fresh ginger root. Of course, you may adjust the quantity according to personal preference.
Coconut milk makes this pumpkin soup creamier. However, should you avoid saturated fat, you may replace it with any nut or seed butter. For example, tahini, cashew butter, peanut butter, or almond butter. Alternatively, for an even leaner result, blend some silken tofu into you soup.
Herbs and Spices
Next, let’s add turmeric to further deepen the golden colour of our soup. Furthermore, turmeric comes with lots of health benefits.
For flavours, we also use bay leaf and dried sage in this recipe. I don’t know about you, but I add bay leaf to almost every savoury dish that needs to be cooked on a stovetop. Besides, it makes grains and legumes easier to digest.
As for sage, it’s simply a match made in heaven with pumpkin. Moreover, it’s packed with nutrients, especially vitamin K. To be more precise, one teaspoon of dried sage covers 6% of your daily vitamin K needs. In addition, it’s loaded with antioxidants, may support oral health, ease menopause symptoms, reduce blood sugar levels, support memory and bran health, and more. [source]
To Garnish
I also recommend adding some extra dried sage to garnish your soup bowl.
Grated nutmeg is another flavour that goes very well with pumpkin. You can either mix it into the soup or garnish your bowl.
When it comes to pumpkin soup, it’s evident that roasted pumpkin seeds hit the nail on the head as well!
If you have unhulled pumpkin seeds, I recommend you soak them first for 6-8 hours, then drain and rinse. If you like them crunchy, you may dehydrate them after soaking. It’s important to know that soaking nuts and seeds reduces phytic acid and makes them easier to digest.
Optionally, for additional flavour boost, pour a little tamari or add half a teaspoon of miso paste to your pumpkin soup.
Finally, if you’re into spices, sprinkle some chili flakes or cayenne pepper on your portion. I must admit I love the additional spice!
The Process
We start with putting red lentils to soak for at least two hours. Then, drain and rinse.
Next, take a medium-sized pumpkin aka pie pumpkin and cut it in half. Now, scoop out the seeds and place the halves, face down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the pumpkin at 200°C (390°F) for 30 minutes until soft. Alternatively, bake only one half and keep the other in the fridge for another recipe or meal.
While the pumpkin is baking, sauté chopped onion and ginger with two tablespoons of water for a few minutes until the onion becomes translucent. Add water one tablespoon at a time, if necessary.
Next, add soaked, drained, and rinsed red lentils, cubed carrot and sweet potato, dried sage, and turmeric. Stir and throw in bay leaves as well.
Now, pour hot water into the soup pot, stir, and bring to boil. Then, reduce heat and let simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
Separate pumpkin flesh from the peel and add it to the soup. In case you’re using a pumpkin with soft and edible peel, keep it on. For example, you can use the peel of Hokkaido pumpkin.
Next, pour in coconut milk and, using a regular or an immersion blender, process the soup until smooth. It’s up to you whether you decide to leave it a bit chunky or blend it very smooth.
I recommend letting the soup cool down a bit before adding salt and pepper. It’s because the flavours will be enhanced once the soup is cooler. Hence, you’d add more salt to hot soup. Finally, should you decide to add nutmeg and chili flakes to the whole batch, mix them in as well.
How to Serve This Pumpkin Soup
As mentioned above, garnish your soup with extra dried sage and roasted pumpkin seeds or pine nuts. Instead of dried sage, you may also top your soup with fresh herbs like coriander and parsley.
Also, if you didn’t add nutmeg and chili flakes to the whole batch, sprinkle them on now.
If you prefer your soup very creamy, add a few teaspoons of coconut milk.
Optionally, for additional flavour boost, pour a little tamari or add half a teaspoon of miso paste to your pumpkin soup.
For a complete and balanced meal, eat this pumpkin soup with a green side salad and a slice of sourdough bread or cooked grains like quinoa, rice, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, or teff. In case you’re fine with eating gluten, you may widen the choice with bulgur, kamut, spelt, and wheat berries. Alternatively, add some cooked whole grain pasta to your bowl.
Finally, if you’re like me and love to have some crunch with your meal, chop up some raw red cabbage and add it on top of your soup bowl.
How to Store
Needless to say, this pumpkin soup recipe is excellent for batch-cooking and therefore storing. So, transfer any leftovers to a sealed container or a jar and keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Here are some more savoury pumpkin recipe ideas for you:
Finally, check out the below puree soup recipes on my blog:
- Cauliflower Soup
- Creamy Soup with Peas, Broccoli, and Kale
- Broccoli Spinach Soup
- Creamy Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup
- Beetroot Soup with Chickpeas
- Cold Beetroot Soup
Should you be a visual learner, watch the below video where I make 5 different delicious and healthy savoury pumpkin recipes:
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Hearty Pumpkin Soup Recipe with Lentils
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 3–4 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make a hearty and healthy pumpkin soup recipe with lentils and sweet potato. This creamy and delicious soup is an excellent healthy and comforting autumnal meal.
Ingredients
- ½ medium-sized oven-baked pumpkin (450g, 15.9oz flesh)
- 70g (2.5oz) dry red lentils, soak
- 1 medium onion (100g, 3.5oz with skin)
- 3 garlic cloves
- 5g (0.2oz) piece of fresh ginger
- 1 tsp. turmeric
- 1 medium carrot
- ½ of a large sweet potato (325g, 11.5oz)
- 1 tbsp. dried sage
- 1 large or 2 smaller bay leaves
- 800g (28.2oz) water
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- Himalayan salt to taste (max ¼ tsp. for Plantricious version)
- Black pepper to taste
To garnish:
- Chili flakes or cayenne pepper
- More dried sage
- Grated nutmeg
- Pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Start with putting red lentils to soak for at least two hours. Then, drain and rinse.
- Next, take a medium-sized pumpkin and cut it in half. Now, scoop out the seeds and place the halves, face down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the pumpkin at 200°C (390°F) for 30 minutes until soft. Alternatively, bake only one half and keep the other in the fridge for another recipe or meal.
- While the pumpkin is baking, sauté chopped onion and ginger with two tablespoons of water for a few minutes until the onion becomes translucent. Add water one tablespoon at a time, if necessary.
- Next, add soaked, drained, and rinsed red lentils, cubed carrot and sweet potato, dried sage, and turmeric. Stir and throw in bay leaves as well.
- Now, pour hot water into the soup pot, stir, and bring to boil. Then, reduce heat and let simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
- Separate pumpkin flesh from the peel and add it to the soup. In case you’re using a pumpkin with soft and edible peel, keep it on. For example, you can use the peel of Hokkaido pumpkin.
- Next, pour in coconut milk and, using a regular or an immersion blender, process the soup until smooth. It’s up to you whether you decide to leave it a bit chunky or blend it very smooth.
- Let the soup cool down a bit before adding salt and pepper. It’s because the flavours will be enhanced once the soup is cooler.
- Finally, should you decide to add nutmeg and chili flakes to the whole batch, mix them in as well.
Notes
You may choose any preferred pumpkin variety e.g., butternut squash, calabaza, delicata squash, hubbard squash, kabocha squash, regular pumpkin, or Hokkaido pumpkin aka pie pumpkin.
Should you avoid saturated fat, replace coconut milk it with any nut or seed butter. For example, tahini, cashew butter, peanut butter, or almond butter. Alternatively, for an even leaner result, blend some silken tofu into you soup.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30+10 minutes
- Method: Stovetop
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ¼ of the recipe
- Calories: 207 kcal
- Sodium: 205mg
- Fat: 3.25g
- Saturated Fat: 2.5g
- Carbohydrates: 32.6g
- Fiber: 7g
- Protein: 7.2g
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