This roast pumpkin sweet potato soup is the simplest and easiest soup recipe that you can make. Also, roasting the veggies brings out the sweetness of the vegetables and adds to the velvet texture of the soup.
Now that it's cold we are making soup four times a week. So, if you ask the kids what they want for dinner, it's soup!!! "Mama, make soup". Luckily, they enjoy vegetables, so it's never a problem to make a quick and easy soup.
So far, I made this soup in a few combinations with sweet potatoes such as carrots or butternut squash and they are all absolutely delicious.
About this soup
Firstly, the secret to making vegetable soups like pumpkins, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips is roasting them. It's the sugars in the vegetables, which caramelize so beautifully, that adds to the natural sweetness of the soup. As a result, the taste difference is between no-roast and roasted is huge.
Also, if you plan ahead you can roast these ahead of time and leave the veggies in the fridge. Then, just make the soup half an hour before dinner. I also roast the onions and garlic. In addition to adding more flavor, it also means that I don't need to waste time with sautéing them later.
Secondly, the timeline for this soup is very straight forward.
- Clean veggies - 10 mins
- Roast veggies - 40 mins (can be done 2 days ahead)
- Prepare soup - 20 mins
Ingredients and substitutes
- Pumpkin - You can buy already cut and peeled pumpkin from the supermarket. I bought a large piece so peeled and cut it myself.
- Sweet potatoes – I like using the orange sweet potatoes, which enhances the pretty color of our soup but any sweet potato works.
- Onion – I love to use the Spanish red onion for my soups. And, roasting them further brings out their sweetness.
- Garlic – A little goes a long way with fresh garlic. And yet, the moment you roast them they turn from pungent to sweet. I like using a few but use only as much as you like.
- Milk - I'm using regular full-fat 3% milk here. But you can use half and half as well as skimmed milk.
- Stock - I'm using homemade stock. And yet, you can use store-bought as well. If you do use store-bought stock, make sure to under season the soup as carton stocks have salt added to it.
Video and step by step (pin)
Roast
- Preheat oven at 160 C / 320 F.
- Using a sturdy chopping board and a sharp chef's knife clean, skin, and chop the pumpkin into large chunks.
- Clean and cut the sweet potato in half lengthways.
- Also, chop onion into large chunks. Leave the garlic with the skin on.
- Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and spray with oil to prevent sticking.
- Place the veggies pumpkin, sweet potato, onions, and garlic on the baking tray and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast in the oven for about 40 mins to an hour until the veggies are soft and tender. The edges will be caramelized. The onions will be darker caramelized which is very delicious.
- Remove all veggies from the oven. You can roast veggies up to two days ahead and keep in the fridge.
Prepare soup
- Peel the sweet potato and garlic. The garlic will be soft, so just squeeze the pulp out instead of peeling. You can also use a spoon to scoop all the sweet potato away from the skin.
- Add all veggies in a soup pot or stockpot along with the stock, butter, and bay leaves.
- Place on medium heat and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes until everything is well heated through.
- The soup will be very thick at this point but all mashed up.
- Remove bay leaves and use a hand mixer to blend everything to a smooth puree.
If using a stand blender cool the soup for a few minutes and be very careful as a hot soup can splash out and cause serious burns. - Add cornstarch to the milk, then add it to the soup (if using fresh cream you don't need cornstarch).
- Season with salt and pepper. Check consistency. If necessary, add more water or stock.
- Remove from heat. The soup gets thicker as it cools, so you may need to adjust consistency again before serving.
- Serve in soup bowls with toasted croutons or bread.
Frequently asked questions
This soup will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. You can also keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Always thaw in the fridge overnight for best results.
You can roast the sweet potato and pumpkin for 2 to 4 days ahead and save it in the refrigerator or freeze it for up to 3 months.
You can omit the roasted pumpkin and make a roasted sweet potato soup.
You can add a fall flavor like maple syrup as I have done in my maple pumpkin soup with toasted pumpkin seeds.
A side salad or sauteed veggies with some homemade fresh bread on the side makes a complete meal. Try
garlic sesame asparagus,
parmesan asparagus,
sesame green beans,
cheesy baked eggplant slices,
lemon rosemary potatoes,
roasted dill potatoes,
Some salad recipes to serve with this soup
- Cherry Tomato Mozzarella Salad
- Cabbage Salad with Toasted Sunflower Seeds
- Easy Celery Salad with Cranberries and Pecans
- Carrot Salad with Raisins, Cranberries and nuts
- Ginger Kale with Pine Nuts and Cranberries
- Simple Healthy Kale
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Description
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) Pumpkin cut into 4 inch cubes
- 0.5 lb (250 g) Sweet potato Cut in half lengthways
- 1 cup Onion chopped
- 1 tsp Garlic sliced
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 4 cups Stock vegetable or chicken
- 3 Bay leaves
- 2 cups (470 ml) Milk or 1 cup 15% cream
- 1 tsp Cornstarch
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Pepper
- ½ cup (120 ml) Water or stock extra if needed to bring to consistency
Instructions
Roast
- Preheat oven at 160 C / 320 F.
- Using a sturdy chopping board and a sharp chef's knife clean, skin, and chop the pumpkin into large chunks.
- Clean and cut the sweet potato in half lengthways.
- Chop onion into large chunks too. Leave the garlic with the skin on.
- Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and spray with oil to prevent sticking.
- Place the veggies pumpkin, sweet potato, onions, and garlic on the baking tray and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast in the oven for about 40 mins to an hour until the veggies are soft and tender. The edges will be caramelized. The onions will be darker caramelized, which is very delicious.
- Remove all veggies from the oven. You can roast veggies up to two days ahead and keep in the fridge.
Prepare Soup
- Peel the sweet potato and garlic. The garlic will be soft, so just squeeze the pulp out instead of peeling. You can also use a spoon to scoop all the sweet potato away from the skin.
- Place on medium heat and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes until everything is well heated through.
- The soup will be very thick at this point but all mashed up.
- Remove bay leaves and use a hand mixer to blend everything to a smooth puree. If using a stand blender, cool the soup for a few minutes and be very careful as a hot soup can splash out and cause serious burns.
- Add cornstarch to the milk, then add it to the soup (if using fresh cream you don't need cornstarch).
- Season with salt and pepper. Check consistency. If necessary, add more water or stock.
- Remove from heat. The soup gets thicker as it cools, so you may need to adjust consistency again before serving.
- Serve in soup bowls with toasted croutons or bread.
Recipe Notes
10 tips to make perfect homemade soups
- Choose the right vegetables and pair them appropriately. This is important when making combining two or more veggies together.
- Know the cooking time of these vegetables. Add the longer cooking vegetables to the pot first or some will be mush while the others will be grainy.
- When possible opt for roasting the vegetables. Roasting veggies caramelizes the sugars and brings out the natural sweetness in the vegetables.
- If possible make your own homemade stock. This makes a huge difference to homemade soups.
- If you use ready to use store-bought stock make sure to under season your vegetables as commercial stocks have tons of salt added to it.
- You don't always need butter or cream for every soup. Vegetables with high fiber like potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash, become very creamy when cooked and pulsed. Which means you can eat them more often if you make them healthier. Right?
- Often a tab of butter or cream on the top adds that touch of flavor you need in a soup. So add just that ½ tsp of butter or 1 tbsp of cream on the top as garnish.
- Yogurt and milk are a great alternative to full-fat cream. Having said that both milk and yogurt can split when added to soups. So add them warm and at the last minute. Then, turn the heat off. OR
- A teaspoon of cornstarch in ever cup of milk will prevent the milk from splitting.
- While yogurt is a great low-fat addition to soups, it can add a bit of tang which may or may not work with all vegetables.
Equipment
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
