Creamy Miso Bacon Pumpkin Soup

Creamy, sweet and savoury creamy pumpkin soup made with oven-roasted pumpkin, bacon and miso broth for that hint of umami flavour. A standalone soup? or maybe for dipping your cheesy breads? or maybe drizzle it over some cold noodles? Decisions, decisions.

It’s been a very wet and rainy Spring this year and with each passing day I can slowly feel that dreary mood creep up on me. When I’m feeling this way I usually turn to easy to make comfort foods to cheer me up. Then again, I think comfort foods should be had all year round.

 

 

This creamy pumpkin soup is full of flavour. From the toasted salty bacon to the sweetness from the pumpkin all pulled together with a umami packed miso broth. I like to top this creamy pumpkin soup off with a dallop of sour cream and chives (or scallions) to it a hint of creaminess to it (as if it needed more creaminess :P) but don’t take my word for it – try it out to see for yourself! 🙂

 

 

INGREDIENTS

For this creamy pumpkin soup, most ingredients can be found at your local grocery store.

 

 

If miso is tricky to find, you can usually find it at an Asian grocery store, at a specialty gourmet shop or online.

 

Types of Miso

There are many types of miso out there, and here are a few differences between them:

• White Miso (Shiro Miso) – Typically made with soy beans and rice and has a light and mild flavour and is slightly sweet.
• Yellow Miso (Shinshu Miso) – Typically made with soy beans and barley. It has a stronger flavour than white miso but not as strong as red miso. (no affiliate link available as I could not find one online that was a reasonable price.)
• Red Miso (Aka Miso) – Typically made with with soy beans, barley and grains with a longer fermentation process and has a stronger flavour and is more saltier with a stronger umami flavour.
• Awase Miso (Mix of red and white miso) – This is a blend of red and white miso.

At the end of the day, go with your gut with what type of miso to use. If you are new to miso and are not sure which one to pick then I’d start with the white or yellow miso. Once you start to try them you will start to find your preference naturally. They all taste fantastic. 🙂

For this recipe, I used red miso but that is only because I enjoy a stronger flavour of miso. You can switch this up with any type of miso.

 

 

 

Substitution for Pumpkin?

For this creamy pumpkin soup, you can substitute any type of squashes in it’s place and it will work just as well since they all have the same consistency and sweetness.

 

 

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Roast the Pumpkin in the Oven

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (177C).
2. Drizzle oil on the pumpkin
3. Set the pumpkin on a oven safe pan and roast it in the oven for approximately 1 hour or until it is soft and you can insert a knife into it easily.

Chop Your Ingredients

Once the pumpkin is done roasting in the oven, let it cool for a few minutes before handling it.

1. Chop up all your ingredients and set them aside.
   

Saute them in a Pot

1. On medium heat, add the oil and butter into a pot
2. Once the butter has melted add in the bacon and brown it – approximately 1-2 minutes
3. Add in the garlic and onions and saute them until it is soft – approximately 5 minutes
4. Add in the pumpkin to brown and melt – approximately 10-12 minutes
   Note: Do not worry if you see brown bits on the bottom of the pan or if the pumpkin sticks to the bottom. Keep scraping the brown bits – this is flavour and it will melt into the soup once we add in the liquid.
5. Add in the miso and toast it for 1-2 minutes
6. Add in 1 cup of broth and scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan
7. Once the brown bits have been scraped off, add the rest of the broth and reduce the heat to low heat and simmer it for 15 minutes

Blitz!

1. Once the ingredients are all soft, using a blender (or hand blender), blitz the pumkin soup until it is smooth and creamy.
2. Taste the the soup and add salt to taste
3. Top with garnishes and enjoy!

 

 

 

This may sound weird but something we do around here that you may enjoy is serve the creamy soup with noodles! You will need to cook the noodles as per package directions and then run the noodles under cold water to stop the cooking process and to rinse out the excess starch. Then once the creamy pumpkin soup is done, we just added a handful of noodles into the soup – voila a meal!

Do you have rituals and weird tips you’d like to share? We’d love to hear or see, tag us with #pupswithchopsticks! It’s always so interesting to see how others around the world enjoy their foods. 🙂

Happy Experimenting!

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