Pumpkin Stew with Walnuts

It’s Seriously Soup day today, featuring one of my favorite bloggers, Serena, who authors a blog called Seriously Soupy.  Serena started Seriously Soupy as a creative outlet for herself after her first daughter was born, which combined her passion for cooking with an interest in learning more about soups and soup making.  Since it started, she has given soup tours and taught soup classes and has a catalog of over 100 soups on the site!  You can join Serena on her Soupy journey at SeriouslySoupy.com and twice a month you can find her here, at My Judy the Foodie, sharing her wisdom and helping demystify the world of soup.

Here’s what Serena has to say:

This soup contains one of the quintessential vegetables of the fall: pumpkin!  I didn’t want to create a soup just with pumpkin (although I do love a simple pumpkin), so I added cauliflower, potatoes, yellow squash, and walnuts to create a hearty and chunky meal-like soup. I also added one of my new favorite mixture of spices – cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves- for the ultimate fall soup.

An easy one to try on any weekend, along with a loaf of pumpkin bread and pumpkin latte and a pumpkin whatever else you can get your hands on.

Chunky Pumpkin Stew with Walnuts

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-sized pumpkin
• 1 can of organic pumpkin
• 2-3 cups of water, approx.
• 1/4 cup light heavy cream
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup of walnuts, crushed
• 1 cup of cauliflower, chopped up
• 2-3 potatoes, cut up
• 1 yellow squash, cut up
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil, approx.
• 5 cardamom pods, crushed
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons of cloves
• 2 tablespoons of ginger
• 2 tablespoons of nutmeg
• pinch of salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut open the pumpkin (from the top) and remove the seeds and place in the oven.
3.  Cut up the onion and garlic and add them to a pot, along with the olive oil.
4. Turn on a low flame and let cook as you cut up the potatoes, squash, and cauliflower. Add them to the pot, along with the canned pumpkin, cream, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
5. Check on the pumpkin and add scoop out the roasted pumpkin and add them to the pot, along with the crushed walnuts and cover.
6. Let cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring periodically and/or adding some water (you will know if you have to).
7. Turn off the flame, taste with salt and pepper and place some of the soup in a blender. Serve chunky with walnuts and enjoy!

How do you make your pumpkin soup?