Name: What makes pumpkin soup the perfect fall comfort food?
Uploaded: 2025-10-28T16:40:09.946Z
Duration: 5 min 6 s
Description: Creamy, spicy, or mild – pumpkin soup brings color, warmth, and comfort to chilly days. A golden classic you can’t skip in fall.

Creamy, spicy, or mild – pumpkin soup brings color, warmth, and comfort to chilly days. A golden classic you can’t skip in fall.

Pumpkin soup is a popular dish in Germany and around the world, especially as temperatures drop. Its vibrant color and warming qualities make it a seasonal favorite, with many recipes allowing for a range of spices and variations. Not all pumpkins are suitable for cooking, as ornamental gourds can be toxic, but varieties like Hokkaido and butternut squash are commonly used for their flavor and texture.

The preparation of pumpkin soup involves careful selection and handling of the pumpkin, with tips such as roasting seeds and using the edible skin of Hokkaido pumpkins. The soup can be customized with spices like ginger, curry, and cumin, and can be made vegan by substituting cream with coconut milk. The result is a silky, flavorful soup that embodies the comfort and essence of the autumn season.

What makes pumpkin soup the perfect fall comfort food?

The color alone can make you feel warm inside. Pumpkin soup. A German favorite, perfect for the start of the cold season. It gives you a lovely warmth, pumpkin soup. It fits the season. You could eat it every day. It tastes like fall, and I love fall. At the Park Café restaurant in Ludwigsburg, Laura Leidig shows us how to make a proper pumpkin soup. It's not difficult. There are many different recipes for pumpkin soup. You can work with various spices and herbs. With ginger for a fine, spicy note, or curry, turmeric and cumin. That leads us in the direction of Asian cuisine. We'll get to Laura's favorite variation shortly. But first, let's dive into the wonderful world of pumpkins. We visit the world's largest pumpkin exhibition in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart. There are some 700 varieties on show here, but beware, you can't serve up any old pumpkin. Ornamental gourds like these, with their funky colors and shapes, are just for show. In Germany, ornamental gourds must be labeled. The toxins they contain can cause serious illness or even death. Not the case for the beloved butternut squash, fortunately. Most pumpkins are harvested from the beginning of August. But some varieties need to ripen longer and can only be harvested in autumn. Like this jack-o'-lantern. It was bred specifically for Halloween. While they're perfectly edible and great for a warming soup, many prefer to carve them into ghoulish lanterns. Originally, pumpkins were native to Central and South America. They arrived in Europe after voyages of Columbus. Today pumpkins are grown worldwide. European leaders in pumpkin cultivation are Ukraine, Spain and Italy. But how to turn a pumpkin into a delicious soup? For this recipe, Lara uses Hokkaido, or butternut squash. The biggest challenge is cutting the large, hard fruit. But she shows us a hack for easy carving. With Hokkaido pumpkins, it's important first to cut off the top and bottom, to have a little more surface area. Then you go in with the knife down to the middle and pull down. Do the same on the other side and you have your perfectly halved Hokkaido. You can eat Hokkaido skin, but with other pumpkins not so much. Hokkaido skin is quite fine, so it cooks down well. With other pumpkins, it's a bit thicker. So you can eat the skin, but what about the seeds? Rather than throwing them away, try roasting them in the oven, whole or shelled. For Lara's favorite pumpkin soup, she uses finely chopped ginger and diced onions. First we put the oil and the onions in a pot. Then we add the ginger. We add it at the beginning so that it can better develop its flavor. You do the same if you add curry, cumin or fresh herbs. Sweat them a little, right at the beginning. Then it's time to add the pumpkin. For acidity, Lara adds some orange juice. Then the soup is topped up with vegetable broth. The Hokkaido has a very nutty flavor of its own, so you don't need many spices. As for other types of pumpkin, like butternut squash, you need stronger and more spices because it only has a light, buttery aroma. To give it some oomph, you'll need more spice accordingly. To get that beautifully silky consistency, cream is a must. And it's vegan-friendly too. Just use coconut milk instead. Down for about 20 minutes, and voila! The soup is ready for pureeing. There's nothing quite like a bowl of pumpkin soup to capture the essence of fall. A true comfort food for a cozy evening in as the days get shorter.

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