Pork & Pumpkin Soup -- Take Two!

Oops! Fingers slipped the keyboard and published before the post was done, so please excuse the repetition. Let's try this again, shall we?

October brings cooler temps, shorter days, and yummy fall foods. For the next two months, TCC will be bringing you an assortment of seasonal comfort foods. Lots of squash and pumpkin and spices and chocolate (yes, chocolate is a fall food too).

To start off the season right, we've got a nice hearty fall soup for you. It's a long-cooking soup, so best to start early. But as always, we promise it will be worth it.

Pork & Pumpkin Soup

1-1/2 lbs boneless pork, cut into 1" chunks
1-2 tsp olive oil
1 med onion, chopped
2 tbsp red apple balsamic vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
4 lg tomatoes, hand-squished (or a 16 oz can of stewed tomatoes)
2 cups water
1 lb potatoes, chopped
3 cups fresh cut pumpkin (about 1/3 small pumpkin)
1 lg carrot, chopped
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp garlic salt
fresh cracked black pepper
1/3-2/3 cups fresh pumpkin puree

After you cut the pork into bite-sized pieces, brown them in a large skillet with some oil. Reduce the heat and add in the onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then add in the vinegar and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes.

Put the cooked pork and onions in a large soup pot over low heat (or a crock pot on low). Add in the tomatoes.

For those not familiar with the hand-squished method, you take some very very ripe tomatoes and cut them into large pieces, put them in a deep bowl and squish them with your hands. If the tomatoes are ripe enough they will pull apart quite easily.

Add in the water, potatoes, pumpkin, carrot and spices. Let sit over low heat, stirring occasionally and tasting to adjust the flavor.

we cut the pumpkin into big chunks and

then cut out the middles and cut into pieces

we used an assortment of red and white fingerling potatoes

While the soup is cooking, cut the rest of the pumpkin into large pieces. Make sure to pull out of the seeds and scrape off the inner goop. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. When done, remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Once cooled, cut rind off, cut into chunks and puree. Mix as much of the puree into the soup as you would like. Depends on how pumpkiny you want your soup to be.

Serve up with some rich hearty grain bread and enjoy!