Roast Onion Pumpkin Soup

I am very excited to bring you a K2 original recipe.  Perfect for the fall, not too heavy, but not too light, something to warm your belly when the temperature starts to drop outside, all that AND pumpkin!  Because I do love some pumpkin flavor this time of year.

So this was one of those train-of-thought creations -- I had a can of pumpkin puree, wanted to try something new, read this great post on Sunday (wink wink) about the savory things that work well with winter squashes, thought hey sage with pumpkin sounds good, been meaning to roast up those Farmer's Market onions with something too, also been intrigued by those Knorr Chicken Homestyle Stock starters I keep seeing on TV, add a touch of cream to that and...badda-bing badda-boom, magico presto...Roast Onion Pumpkin Soup.

Roast Onion Pumpkin Soup

1 medium onion (about 3-4" big)
1 tsp olive oil
fresh cracked black pepper
3 cups water
1 Knorr Chicken Homestyle Stock starter
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup Half-n-Half, warmed to room temp
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried rubbed sage
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cut your onion into large sections.  Put them on a piece of foil (large enough to make into a packet) and drizzle with olive oil and a twist or two of black pepper from the pepper mill.

Fold the foil over to make a baking packet.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 1 hour.

In a sauce pan, bring 3 cups of water to a boil, then add in the stock starter and whisk until blended.

Drop the heat on your burner to simmer then add in the pumpkin puree and Half-n-Half to the stock and whisk together.

Mix in the salt and allow to simmer while the onions are cooking.

When the onions are done, put them in a food processor and process until it creates a smooth paste.

Add the roast onion paste to the soup and whisk to blend. 

Add in the sage and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Garnish with sunflower seeds or, if you have them, toasted pumpkin seeds and serve with a nice hearty bread.

NOTES

Alternately, if you had the time, you could make your puree from fresh pumpkin (roasting pumpkin, see bottom of post), then save and toast the seeds to garnish your dish.

If you read the directions on box for the Knorr Chicken Homestyle Stock starter, you'll see it calls for 3 1/2 cups of water, but I opted to replace the 1/2 cup with Half-n-Half to make it creamier.

Make sure your Half-n-Half is at room temperature or warmer.  You don't want to add cold cream to the soup because it will curdle.  I put my glass measuring cup with the cream in the microwave for 35 second and then swirled it around to disperse the heat.  It was just the right temp for adding to the hot liquid.

The Parental Guinea Pigs garnished their servings with grated Parmesan cheese and said it added a nice additional flavor to the dish.

Most important thing to know, the longer you let the soup simmer, the better the flavors will blend.