This delicious pumpkin soup recipe flavored with bacon, celery, garlic, and swirls of sour cream is the perfect way to start your festive period with family and friends! It's such an easy recipe to prepare and uses minimal ingredients, so you'll definitely want to make this creamy pumpkin soup again and again.
Contents
🌟 Why this recipe works
This creamy pumpkin soup is the perfect comfort food for a chilly autumn day. It's easy to whip up and a great way to use up any extra pumpkins you may have lying around from Halloween.
It's thick with hints of bacon, celery, onion, and garlic blended with the pumpkin to give the soup extra flavor. The sour cream swirled in at the end gives the soup a lovely creaminess that makes it even more comforting.
Festive flavors like sweet potato, butternut squash, and pumpkin are perfect for making delicious creamy soups, and this easy pumpkin soup recipe is no exception. The key to getting the perfect creamy consistency is to cook the pumpkin until it's very tender and then blend it until smooth. If you have extra sweet potato you should try my easy delicious sweet potato pie.
It's beginner-friendly too, so it's perfect for any home cook with just one pot needed to combine all the ingredients together and an immersion blender to turn it into a smooth consistency.
The smell and flavor from the soup alone will make your whole house smell amazing and have everyone begging for a bowl.
And if you want more soup recipes, our roasted tomato soup with garlic and basil is simply sublime, or the evergreen pea soup that is creamy and irresistible like our cream of chicken soup.
🍽 Key Ingredients
The best pumpkin soup is here! And it's delicious and so easy to make with only a few pantry ingredients and one soup pot.
Olive oil - The olive in this recipe helps to brown the base ingredients and give the cubed pumpkin caramelized edges, giving the soup a wonderful depth of flavor.
Bacon - Adding bacon to the soup will give it a lovely smoky flavor that you can taste in every spoonful when blended with the pumpkin.
Onion, garlic, and celery - These aromatics are essential for giving the soup an overall savory flavor.
Pumpkin - The star of the show! Make sure to use fresh pumpkin for the best flavor and texture.
Water - This will thin out the soup to your desired consistency.
Sour cream - This is completely optional but adds a lovely creaminess and tang to the soup that takes it over the top.
Substitutions
Sour cream
Full-fat coconut milk or heavy cream are perfect substitutes for this recipe.
Pumpkin
If you don't have a fresh pumpkin on hand, you can use canned pumpkin cubes or canned pumpkin purée.
Bacon
You can substitute the bacon for diced ham or pancetta.
Water
You could use vegetable broth or chicken broth as a substitute for water to add extra flavor.
🔪 How to make
Making pumpkin soup is a household favorite during the festive period that is so easy to prepare and always pleases everyone at the table. It is the first to go and the first to be requested every year! Learn how to make it with the step-by-step instructions below.
Preparations
- Dice the bacon strips into small pieces.
- Chop the onion and celery into small cubes.
- Mince the garlic cloves.
- Cut the skin from the pumpkin using a sharp knife and cut the pumpkin flesh into small cubes.
Cooking instructions
Step 1
In a pan or soup pot, fry the onion, garlic, and bacon for about 5 minutes until the onion and bacon are cooked.
Step 2
Add the pumpkin cubes and stir frequently to avoid sticking to the pan.
Step 3
Once the pumpkin starts to soften and brown, add the hot water so that it covers the pumpkin.
Step 4
Add the diced celery and continue cooking for 10 more minutes.
Step 5
When the pumpkin is completely soft, blend the soup with a hand blender.
Step 6
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Step 7
Ladle soup into bowls and swirl the sour cream into each bowl to finish.
Step 8
Serve hot.
💭 Cooking tips
Roasting the pumpkin
If you want to enhance the pumpkin flavor, chop the pumpkin in half and roast it on a baking tray in a preheated oven at 350F for 1 hour. Scoop out the roasted pumpkin and blend it with the cooked bacon, garlic, onion, and celery.
Use the pumpkin seeds.
Reserve the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin and roast them in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F. Use the seeds as a topping for the soup to add a bit of crunch.
Consistency
If the consistency of the soup is too thick, add more water or broth to make it thinner.
📖 Variations
This pumpkin soup recipe has lots of flavor from the base ingredients, but if you want to spice it up a little or make it sweeter, they're some good variations you can try.
Sweetened pumpkin soup
For a sweeter soup, buy a sugar pumpkin and cook it as instructed, then add 2 teaspoons of maple syrup, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg before blending it. The sweetness from the sugar pumpkin and maple syrup, along with the cinnamon and nutmeg, give it such a wonderful flavor.
Red Thai curry pumpkin soup
That curry paste and pumpkin work really well together in this variation! Mix 2 tablespoons of red Thai curry paste with the onions, garlic, and bacon and cook for 5 minutes until fragrant, then proceed as normal, adding the pumpkin, celery, and water.
Once the soup is blended, pour in half a cup of coconut cream, mix well, and ladle the soup into bowls with a sprinkle of curry powder before serving for a taste of Asia.
Spiced pumpkin soup
If you like your food slightly spicy, add 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, 1 teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon coriander, ½ teaspoon turmeric, ½ teaspoon chili powder, and ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper at the beginning with the oil to fry the onions, garlic, and bacon.
🥗 What to serve with
Pumpkin soup is delicious on its own, but if you want to turn it into a meal, there are some great options to serve with it.
Bread
Pumpkin soup is best served with some crusty bread to soak up all that deliciousness. Try a simple bread recipe like ezekiel bread or something cheesy like cheesy garlic pull-apart knots.
Fries
Pumpkin soup is also great, with some crispy fries on the side. Serve it with sweet potato fries, regular fries, garlic & rosemary fries, or even crispy avocado fries.
🙋 Frequently asked questions
What kind of pumpkin is good for soup?
For this soup recipe, you'll want to use a kabocha squash pumpkin. Other pumpkins like sugar pumpkins and pie pumpkins will work as well.
How do you make pumpkin soup thicker?
If you want your soup to be thicker, cook it for a longer time so that the water evaporates and the pumpkin breaks down more.
🧊 Storing and ♨️ reheating
Pumpkin soup is absolutely delicious the next day. Let it cool completely, then store it in the fridge or freezer.
Fridge - Store pumpkin soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days
Freezer - You can store pumpkin soup in a freezer-safe container for up to 2 months
Reheating - Reheat pumpkin soup on the stove over low heat or in the microwave until warmed through. You may need to add a splash of water or milk to thin it out since it will thicken as it cools.
🍳 Related recipes
If you like my pumpkin soup recipe you should try my collection of pumpkin dessert recipes along with my comforting fall recipes collection.
👪 Serving size
This easy pumpkin soup recipe makes 4 servings but can easily be scaled up or down depending on how many people you're serving.
This pumpkin soup recipe is easy to follow and makes a delicious, hearty meal that everyone will love. With just a few simple ingredients, you can create a soup that is full of flavor and perfect for any occasion.
And if you have leftover pumpkin, why not try our other pumpkin Thanksgiving recipes like spiced pumpkin roll with cream cheese, sweet potato pie or everyone's family's favorite pumpkin pie!
Love this dessert recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page.
Try one of my comfort dessert recipes for your next meal! And if you have any questions, I'm here to help!
📋 Recipe
Easy Pumpkin Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 oz bacon - finely diced
- 1 large onion - finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic - minced
- 2 lbs pumpkin - cubed
- 1 stalk celery - finely diced
- hot water - as needed
- salt and pepper - to taste
- sour cream - garnish
Instructions
Preparations
- Dice the bacon strips into small pieces.
- Chop the onion and celery into small cubes.
- Mince the garlic cloves.
- Cut the skin from the pumpkin using a sharp knife and cut the pumpkin flesh into small cubes.
Cooking instructions
- In a pan or soup pot, fry the onion, garlic, and bacon for about 5 minutes until the onion and bacon are cooked.
- Add the pumpkin cubes and stir frequently to avoid sticking to the pan.
- Once the pumpkin starts to soften and brown, add the hot water so that it covers the pumpkin.
- Add the diced celery and continue cooking for 10 more minutes.
- When the pumpkin is completely soft, blend the soup with a hand blender.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Ladle soup into bowls and swirl the sour cream into each bowl to finish.
- Serve hot.
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