Roast Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup

Thick and delicious, this roast pumpkin and sweet potato soup is very easy to make, full of flavour and is velvety smooth.

About This Recipe

• Very little effort is required in making this delicious roasted vegetable soup.
• It’s mildly sweet in flavour and satisfying to eat, making it perfect for chilly days.
• This recipe is vegan friendly.
• It’s low calorie, gluten free and almost fat free.
• This is a thick full bodied soup made with plenty of healthy vegetables.
• It’s budget friendly when you use in season vegetables.

Ingredient Notes

Olive oil – or vegetable oil can be used.

Brown onions – when roasted add a luscious flavour to the soup.

Pumpkin – I prefer to use butternut squash because, it has a natural sweetness. However, this soup can also be made with other varieties of pumpkin.

Sweet Potatoes – for this soup use a sweet potato with orange flesh.

Carrots – the addition of carrot is a great way not only sneak in extra vegetables, it also helps to make a thicker and heartier soup. Also, being an orange vegetable, it won’t change the colour of the soup when pureed.

Garlic – when roasted adds a nice subtle flavour to the soup. If you don’t like garlic, you can leave it out.

Water, vegetable or chicken stock can be used.

Milk powder – gives the soup a creaminess without thinning it down.

Salt and pepper – this is for seasoning the soup and is added to taste

Recipe Steps

This recipe uses two different cooking methods roasting and stove top cooking. Roasting is the first method, this will bring out the sweetness from the vegetables, and will also help add depth and flavour to the soup. 

Boiling is the next, this will ensure that every vegetable is completely cooked and soft, which is essential if you what a velvety smooth soup.

Step 1 to 2 – Remove the skin and seeds from the pumpkin and cut into 2-3 cm (1 inch) thick slices. Peel and cut the carrots into quarters lengthwise.

Place the pumpkin and carrots in a large bowl and drizzle over one tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle on a little salt and toss well. Transfer the vegetables to a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Peel the sweet potato and slice it into a to a similar thickness as the pumpkin. Peel and quarter the onions. Peel the garlic cloves and leave them whole.

Place these into a large bowl, toss in one tablespoon of olive oil and a little salt. Transfer to a second baking tray lined with baking paper.

Roast the vegetables for about 50 – 60 minutes in a preheated hot oven.

Step 3 – Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices into a large pot.

Don’t worry if the carrots are still a little firm at this stage, they will be completely cooked at the end of this next step.

Add two litres of water to the vegetables and place the pot over medium to high heat and bring to the boil, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low and simmer for twenty minutes.

Step 4 – Remove from the heat, add 4 tablespoons of milk powder. Use a stick blender to puree the vegetables until smooth and season with salt to taste.

Recipe Notes and Tips

Stock – Store bought or homemade vegetable broth or chicken stock can be used instead of water.

Bouillon cubes – Stock can also be made using bouillon (stock) cubes. This can be mixed in a jug with the water before making the soup or, just crumble the recommended quantity for 8 cups of water straight into the soup pot.

Extra Vegetables – If you wanted to add another vegetable to the soup you could add a zucchini. Peel the zucchini before adding it to the pot.

If the skin is left on when it will give the soup a greenish tinge when pureed.

Make this in advance – The vegetables can be roasted up to 4 days in advance which will save you some time. Allow the vegetable to cool and store in the fridge until needed.

When you are ready, place the vegetables in a large pot with water and make the soup about 30 minutes before dinner.

Recipe Variations

To make a thinner soup use less vegetables – This soup is very thick. If you prefer a thinner soup, make the soup using half the amount of vegetables and this will be enough to serve 8.

To make a thinner soup use more liquid – You could also make the soup as outlined in the recipe, then thin it down with more water or stock, this will give you more soup. Which is perfect if you are going to feed a crowd.

When adding more liquid to the soup be sure to adjust the seasoning to avoid a watered down tasting soup.

Short on time skip the roasting – Dice the onion, mince the garlic, slice the carrot small and cube the sweet potato and butternut pumpkin.

Heat the oil in a large deep saucepan and fry the onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes.

Add the carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin and water, bring to the boil over a high heat. Turn down the heat down to medium/low and simmer covered until all the vegetables are nice and soft.

This will take about 20 – 30 minutes or more depending on how big you’ve cut the vegetables. Once all the vegetables are very soft, remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree until smooth.

Spice it up – if you like your food a little spicy add 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper or more to taste.

Slow cooker variation – If you want to make this on a day that you know you are going to be busy make the most of your slow cooker.

Roast and cool the veggies the night or two before and store in the fridge. On the day you intend to make the soup add the veggies and stock to the slow cooker, put the lid on, set the slow cooker to low heat and cook for 6 – 8 hours. When ready puree the soup using and immersion blender.

Make it vegan or dairy free leave out the milk powder or replace the milk with a plant based milk like; unsweetened coconut milk, almond milk or soy milk.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, you could use a food processor or blender but, use these with extreme caution when blending hot liquids.

You should never over fill a blender with a hot liquid because, pressure can build up inside when capped.

This is due to steam build up which can cause the mixture inside to spill out when the machine is turned on.

The safest when using a blender or processor is to allow the soup to cool completely then puree smooth and reheat before serving.

Garnish Options

This pumpkin and sweet potato soup is very thick and can support heavy garnishes without having them sink to the bottom of the bowl.

• Garnish the soup with a swirl of cream just before serving, or dollop on some sour cream or Greek yogurt.
• Sprinkle on roasted pumpkin seeds and or sesame seeds.
• Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
• Sprinkle over finely chopped parsley or chives.
• Drop some croutons on top of the soup.

If you would like to garnish the soup like I did on this page, here is how to do it.

You will need cream, pumpkin seeds, white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds (or poppy seeds) and finely chopped parsley (or chives).

1. Place the soup in a bowl and smooth out the top. You can use a spoon to do this or gently tap the bowl on the bench. The top does not have to be perfectly smooth.
2. Create a circle of cream in the soup by placing 6 drops of cream in a circle around the bowl.
   
   I used a small plastic squirt bottle to this, but you could use a teaspoon, a basting tool, pippet or a dropper.
   
   The cream was thickened slightly before adding to the top of the soup by shaking the cream inside the bottle a few times.
   
   I did this to stop the cream from bleeding and feathering out too much into the soup.
3. Insert a skewer or toothpick into the centre of one of the cream drops. Drag the skewer a few times around the bowl, passing through each drop of cream spreading them out to form a circle.
4. Take a look at the cream circle and pick the worst looking spot, this is where you will start layering the garnish.
5. Start with the pumpkin seeds and create a crescent that covers just over half of the cream circle. Keep the centre section of the crescent thick and thinner at the ends. Use the skewer to help you shape the crescent.
   
   If pumpkin seeds have fallen places you don’t want, these can be nudged into place with the skewer or, push them down into the soup to hide.
6. Lightly sprinkle white sesame seeds over the pumpkin seeds.
7. Then sprinkle with black sesame seeds.
8. Lastly add chopped parsley.
9. Please note every bowl you garnish is going to be slightly different.

What Side Dishes Go Well With Pumpkin And Sweet Potato Soup

My family love this soup with my puff pastry sausage rolls. These bites sized sausage rolls are mildly spicy and are a perfect match for this soup.

You could also serve it with toasted sandwiches, crackers or rusks. Bread recipes that go with soup:

• No knead bread rolls
• Cob bread
• No knead focaccia
• Spinach feta bread
• Bread machine white bread
• Homemade cheese breadsticks

Frequently Asked Questions

More Recipes Using Pumpkin and Potato

• Pumpkin and feta frittata
• Pumpkin chickpea feta salad
• Cauliflower potato mash
• Easy potato soup recipe
• Sweet potato muffins with pecan crumble topping

This roasted sweet potato and pumpkin soup is healthy and easy to make. Whether you decide to roast the vegetables or not this soup is delicious either way.

Be sure to make a big batch and freeze for those cold days when all you want to do is stay curled up in front of a fire.

Please do try this recipe and let me now in the comments below if you have made it!

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Recipe

This post was originally published in July 2018. It has been republished with new photos and information.