The pumpkin soup recipe
for your table
Halve the butternut squash, scrape out the seeds, and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Cut the flesh into roughly two-centimeter cubes so everything cooks at the same speed. You don't need to peel a Hokkaido squash, as its skin becomes soft enough to blend.
Roast the cubes with a little oil and salt in a 200-degree oven for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until the edges turn brown. If you're in a hurry, sauté the pumpkin with the onion and garlic in butter; it's faster but results in a flatter flavor.
Put the pumpkin in a pan with the sautéed onion and garlic, pour in the stock until everything is just covered, and simmer gently for twenty minutes. The cubes should fall apart when you press them with a spoon.
Blend the soup with an immersion blender until completely smooth, then stir in the cream or coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper, and strain it through a fine sieve if you want to serve it in a glass; then you won't feel any fibers.
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The story
Pumpkin is a fruit that can be treated like a vegetable, and its soup appears in almost every country with a cold autumn. In the Netherlands, it only really made its way onto the table when butternut squash appeared in supermarkets; before that, pumpkin was mainly something grown in allotment gardens. That butternut squash is also why the recipe can remain so simple. It has few fibers, a firm, sweet flavor and naturally produces a thick soup after puréeing, without potato or cream as a thickener. Anything you add after that is for flavor, not texture.
The right glass
Soup in a glass calls for two things: the glass must be able to be filled with hot soup, and a small spoon must fit inside it. We do not offer a double-walled soup glass, so a small tea glass is the closest option. According to its description, it is intended for tea and espresso, and fourteen centiliters is exactly the size of an amuse serving: three or four spoonfuls, and that's it. For a full starter portion, choose a wide, low amuse glass of more than twenty centiliters, which fits a regular tablespoon and keeps the garnish on top instead of letting it sink. You can find more glasses designed for hot drinks in our tea glasses collection.
RCR Etna Tea Glass 14 cl (6 pieces)
Pasabahce Timeless Amuse Glass 23.6 cl (4 pieces)
Both sets together € 43,90.
The right tools
For pumpkin soup in a glass, use a fine strainer alongside the glass to remove the last fibers, and a nutmeg grater for grating over the soup. These are the bar tools we use ourselves; you can find everything in our bar tools & cocktail sets collection.
Glass set (our choice 01) + 2 bar tools together € 53,85.
What are you serving with it?
Pumpkin soup is mild and slightly sweet, so you want something fresh or something with bubbles alongside it to cut through that sweetness. White wine with some body, such as a Burgundy, goes well with the roasted version; with the Asian version featuring ginger and red curry, Prosecco works better. On each drinks page, you can read the alcohol percentage, what it tastes like, which cocktails it goes with and which glass you need.
Variations & twists
The Asian version is the best-known variation: replace the cream with coconut milk, add a piece of grated ginger and a spoonful of red curry paste, and finish with coriander leaves. If you want to keep it Dutch, stir in a generous spoonful of apple syrup at the end. And with Hokkaido instead of butternut squash, you don't need to peel it, although the soup will then have a slightly more robust flavor. Looking for more inspiration? Browse more than 100 cocktail recipes.
Serving tip
Only pour in the soup once the glass itself is warm too: rinse it with hot water and pour that away, and the soup will stay at temperature much longer. Garnish at the last moment with roasted pumpkin seeds, a twist of black pepper and a spoonful of crème fraîche, leaving it sitting on top like a white spot. Include a small spoon with the smaller serving, because without one half will remain in the glass.
Good to know
Why roast instead of boil?
Roasting evaporates some of the moisture and browns the sugars in the squash, resulting in a deeper, sweeter flavor. Boiling does the opposite: the squash absorbs moisture and the flavor becomes diluted. Allow twenty to twenty-five minutes at 200 degrees, until the edges of the cubes are really brown. That's where the flavor is, so don't take them out too early.
Butternut squash or Hokkaido?
Butternut squash is sweeter, has little fiber and purées very smoothly, but you have to peel it. Hokkaido squash has a more robust flavor, is slightly drier and doesn't need to be peeled: its skin becomes soft enough during cooking to purée along with the flesh. For a soup you drink from a glass, butternut squash is the easiest choice, because you hardly need to strain it.
How thick should pumpkin soup be?
For a bowl, it may be thick; for a glass, it needs to flow. As a guide, the soup should slide off a spoon without clinging to it. If it is too thick, thin it with warm stock, one spoonful at a time. If it is too thin, simmer it for a few more minutes with the lid off; adding cream makes it creamier but not thicker.
Pumpkin soup as an amuse-bouche in a glass
Take a ten- to fifteen-centilitre glass, fill it to about two-thirds, and serve it with a small spoon. That is three or four bites: enough to taste something, but too little to spoil the starter. Strain the soup first, because in a glass you feel every fibre that you would not notice on a plate.
Can you make pumpkin soup in advance?
Yes, and it does not suffer for it. Make it up to and including puréeing a day in advance, let it cool, and store it covered in the refrigerator. Stir in the cream or coconut milk only when reheating; otherwise it will curdle sooner. You can also freeze it; if so, do that before adding the cream.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make pumpkin soup?
Cut a butternut squash into chunks, roast them with oil and salt in the oven or sauté them with onion and garlic in butter, add stock until everything is just covered, and simmer for twenty minutes. Purée the soup until smooth and stir in a splash of cream or coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper.
Do you have to peel pumpkin?
A butternut squash does, but a Hokkaido squash does not. The skin of a Hokkaido squash becomes soft enough to purée when cooked, while that of a butternut squash remains tough. Peel the butternut squash with a vegetable peeler after cutting it in half and scraping out the seeds.
Why does roasted pumpkin soup taste better?
Because moisture evaporates during roasting and the sugars in the pumpkin brown. This creates a sweet, slightly caramel-like flavour that you do not get when boiling, because the pumpkin absorbs moisture instead. Twenty to twenty-five minutes at 200 degrees is enough.
Which glass do you use for pumpkin soup?
As an amuse-bouche, use a ten- to fifteen-centilitre glass with a small spoon, filled to about two-thirds. As a starter, use a wide, low glass of more than twenty centilitres that fits a tablespoon. In both cases, choose a glass designed to be filled with hot food, and strain the soup first.
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