Pumpkin soup with Mexican Creme Fraiche

PUMPKIN SOUP WITH MEXICAN CINNAMON CREME FRAICHE


It comes from a restaurant called Mesa Grill. I just found it online when I was searching for a yummy pumpkin soup recipe.I think I made this more difficult than it needed to be. I bought some baking pumpkins at the store, so I cleaned them out, baked them, and then pureed the pumpkin. You can just use canned pumpkin, but I wanted to use fresh for some reason. Next time I'm definitely going to use canned (fresh was really good, but a pain!).And I'm a little unsure about the vegetable stock vs water. The first few steps of the directions seem to me like you're just making the vegetable stock (which I did) but if you were using canned vegetable stock I assume you could skip those steps and move on to the pumpkin step...but I could be wrong.I think the soup was great as I used all the fresh ingredients, but again, next time I'm going to make it easier on myself and see how it tastes!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 stocks celery, coarsely chopped
7 cups vegetable stock, or water
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (not flavored pie filling)
1/4 teaspoon ground Mexican cinnamon, plus 1 teaspoon (canella)- I just used regular cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons chipotle puree (I bought a small can of chipotle peppers in the Mexican food section at the grocery store, I think they were in Adobo sauce - or something like that- and just pureed them in my chopper. They definitely added some kick, but the soup wouldn't be the same without them)
3/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream (I just used sour cream, and sprinkled the cinnamon on top of the soup, I didn't mix it with the sour cream)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Garnish: 1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (I didn't use the garnish)

Directions

Heat the butter in a medium stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and celery and cook until soft. Add the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Strain the stock into a clean medium saucepan and whisk in the pumpkin puree until smooth. Bring to a simmer and add the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, spices, honey and chipotle. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Add water, if the soup is too thick. Remove from the heat and whisk in 1/4 cup of the creme fraiche and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix together the remaining creme fraiche and remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon until combined. Divide the soup among 4 bowls and garnish with the cinnamon creme fraiche and a handful of pumpkin seeds.