My successful Pumpkin Soup based on Emeril's recipe

In my craving for a Pumpkin Soup, I decided to search for an easy to follow chef's recipe. I picked Emeril's which is shown below:

From the kitchen of Emeril Lagasse

Servings:6

Difficulty: Easy

Cook Time: 60-120 min

This recipe for Pumpkin Soup is spicy, savory, and just right for an Autumn evening.

Ingredients

4 pounds fresh pumpkin flesh, peeled, seeded, chopped

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups yellow onions, chopped

3 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

2 teaspoons sugar

8 cups of chicken broth

2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated)

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Cooking Directions

Put the chopped pumpkin in a large saucepan, cover with water, and add 1 teaspoon of the salt. Bring to a boil and cook until fork-tender, about 15 minutes.

Drain, let cool, and mash. You should have about 4 cups.

In a large, heavy pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bay leaves, the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, the white pepper and sugar.

Cook, stirring, until the onions are soft and lightly golden, about 10 minutes.

Add the chicken broth, pumpkin puree, and peanut butter. Stir to mix. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered, until it coats a spoon, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Remove and discard the bay leaves and serve hot soup in soup bowls.

Recipe copyright ©1999 Emeril Lagasse.

What turned out was a successful pumpkin soup that everyone loved! :) My brother even asked me if I put some Knorr flavoring, and i said "no, it's all natural!"

Pumpkin, once boiled, is very easy to mash. Do not ever use too much pumpkin, I did that the first time I cooked one (this is my second, and happier outcome). The result of too much pumpkin is that it ends up looking like a mashed pumpkin rather than a soup.

During this time, since I needed chicken stock, I boiled some soup pack chicken cuts. You know those bony breast parts? After using the chicken broth, I realized it would make sense to cook some chicken adobo to match the pumpkin soup for lunch. Here it is, just a very simple boiling with vinegar and soy sauce and nothing else. It is juicy since I boiled it first:

By the way, I also cooked some steak which i boiled in Kikoman sauce, some fennel and coriander seeds:

You might be wondering what's for dessert? Well my brother had some quezo real ice cream by selecta. I crushed some sugar cones on top of it since I don't like eating on cones. It was really crunchy versus the creamy quezo real!