Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Spicy Pumpkin Soup is the perfect blend of sweet and savory. Creamy pumpkin blended with spices. Healthy, quick to make, and freezer friendly. Weight Watcher friendly recipe- 3 SmartPoints!

I love pumpkin anything!  Sweet or savory.  Pumpkin is super versatile and a great festive squash.  While you can find pumpkin year round in a can, it’s fun to make pumpkin inspired dishes in the fall when you can find real pumpkins!  My Spicy Pumpkin Soup is the perfect blend of sweet and savory.  Creamy pumpkin blended with spices and topped with roasted pumpkin seeds.  Super healthy and decadent!  This is a Weight Watchers recipe and 1 cup is only 3 SmartPoints!

Believe it or not, the first time I had pumpkin soup was a few months ago when my husband and I were on our honeymoon… in Costa Rica.  That’s right, I tried pumpkin soup for the first time in Costa Rica.  The hotel we stayed at had an amazing spread of food every night that was served with soup and salad.  Every night there was a different soup featured.  Seems odd to eat soup when you are at the beach, but the food was too delicious looking not to pass up.  One night, they were serving pumpkin soup.  My husband and I looked at each other in confusion and curiosity when we saw the sign advertising pumpkin soup, so we knew we had to try it.

Oh boy, it was amazing!  Both of us couldn’t believe how good the soup was and we couldn’t believe that we were both just now trying it.  We literally scrapped the bowl clean (with bread) and got seconds.  I knew having multiple conversations with my husband about how good that soup was, I knew  once we were back at home and the seasons would change to Fall I would have to make pumpkin soup.

Before I tell you about the soup, I’ll tell you a quick summary of the honeymoon:  We went to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and stayed just outside a city called Puerto Viejo.  We chose the Caribbean side because we heard it was more secluded and the beaches were nicer than the Pacific side.  Our hotel was PERFECT for a honeymoon… our room had a balcony that faced the beach and we had our own hammock!  Great views to wake up to in the morning.

The beach was incredible; blue water, white sand, and relaxing.  Aside from the beach, we did several excursions:

1. Private guided hike in the jungle to a secluded waterfall
2. Tour of Cahuita National Park.  Beautiful national park along the beach with lots of native animals to Costa Rica hanging out in the tall trees.
3. Tour of the Jaguar Rescue Center. There were no jaguars, but we saw TONS OF SLOTHS, baby monkeys, and really cool owls.  This place rescues hurt animals, rehabilitates them, and releases them to the wild.
4. Private guided hike in Punta Uva. We hiked up a mountain, then when we reached the top, we could see the entire Caribbean Ocean.  It was breathtaking!
5. Horseback riding through the jungle and on the beach.

So, what was the best part of the trip??  Aside from spending 5 amazing days with my husband with no cares in the world??  Seeing a sloth cross the road.  Yeah, that’s right…. We saw a sloth crawling across the road.  It was awesome!  Costa Rica was magical, the people were super friendly, the weather was great, and I would highly recommend going to anyone who is interested!  Cheap, easy to travel to, and beautiful!

I’m clearly ready for the beach!

THE SLOTH CROSSING THE STREET!!

My husband took this picture of me on the horse. This was my first time to go horseback riding!

Ok, so back to business y’all.  The pumpkin soup.  I recently bought a bunch of pie pumpkins so I could take a crack at making my own pumpkin puree.  Making homemade pumpkin puree is not as hard as you would think!  A few weeks ago, I posted a recipe for Easy Pumpkin Hand Puffs and shared my experience of making homemade pumpkin puree and exactly how to do it.  When I made the homemade pumpkin puree for the hand puff recipe, I actually had a ton of the puree left over.  I also saved all the seeds from the pumpkin when I was prepping the pumpkin to make the puree.

Homemade pumpkin puree is super versatile and can be used in place of canned pumpkin.  Since I already made a sweet pumpkin dish with the pumpkin puree, I knew it was time to make something savory…. Soup!  The soup my husband and I had in Costa Rica was on the sweet side, which was great, but I wanted to make a spicy soup.  If you haven’t noticed already, I tend to like things spicy (native Texan here and married to a “spice-aholic)).

This soup isn’t too spicy, so don’t worry!  If you do not have homemade pumpkin puree, have no fear.  Canned pumpkin works great!  Just be sure to buy pumpkin puree and not pumpkin PIE puree.  This soup is easy to make and only takes about 20 minutes.

To start, saute’ half an onion and garlic in butter, then add the spices (smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, and turmeric).  Let the spices cook in the onions and garlic for a few minutes.  Cooking the spices for a few minutes really opens the spices up and brings out their flavor.

After the spices have cooked, add vegetable broth, coconut milk, and pumpkin.  Bring to a boil and let cook for 5 minutes.  If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup in the pot until you reach a smooth consistency.  If you do not have an immersion blender, transfer the liquid to a blender and blend until smooth.  Be careful when handling the liquid because it’s hot!  After the soup is smooth, just cook for another few minutes then eat!  This soup is so creamy and delicious, you will want to lick the bowl clean!

I mentioned earlier that when I made homemade pumpkin puree I saved the pumpkin seeds.  I love pumpkin seeds and making them is easy!  They are great for a snack and perfect as a topping to this pumpkin soup.  After the seeds have been washed and patted dry, add melted butter and spices (sugar, salt, pumpkin spice, and chili pepper) to the seeds and mix well.  The pumpkin seeds will roast in the oven at 250 for one hour.  The seeds will need to be mixed ever ten minutes just to make sure they get nice and toasted.  Once the seeds are ready, they can be stored in a zip lock bag and will be good for up to 1 week!  Great little snack to eat and healthy!!

Spicy Pumpkin Soup is the perfect blend of sweet and savory.  Creamy pumpkin blended with spices and topped with roasted pumpkin seeds.  Great for meatless Monday and super healthy!  This soup is quick to make and perfect for a busy week night.  Freezer friendly and great for kids.  I like to serve this with cornbread or pita bread!

I hope you enjoy these bites of flavor!

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

3 SMARTPOINTS per serving

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Ingredients

  

Spicy Pumpkin Soup Ingredients:

• ½ Yellow Onion
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• 1 Tablespoons Light Butter
• 1/2 Teaspoon Smoked Paprika
• 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin
• ½ Teaspoon Turmeric
• ½ Tablespoon Salt
• 2 ½ Cups Vegetable Broth
• ½ Tablespoon pepper
• ½ Cup Light Coconut Milk
• 3 Cups Pumpkin Purée
• 1 Teaspoon Sugar

Pumpkin Seed Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• 1 Cups Pumpkin Seeds
• 1 Tablespoon White Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
• ½ Teaspoon Pumpkin Spice
• ½ Teaspoon Chili Pepper

Instructions

 

Spicy Pumpkin Soup Directions:

• Dice onion and garlic cloves. Set aside.
• Heat large pot over medium heat and add butter.
• When butter is melted, add onion and sauté for 3 minutes until translucent.
• Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
• Add paprika, chili powder, cumin, turmeric, and salt. Stir and cook for 3 minutes.
• Add vegetable broth, coconut milk and pumpkin.
• Bring to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes.
• Transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree soup. Puree until smooth.
• If using blender, add soup back to pot.
• Simmer on low for 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Seed Directions:

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
• Once pumpkin seeds are removed from pumpkin, bring a pot of water to a boil and add pumpkin seeds. Boil for 10 minutes.
• Drain and transfer to paper towel and pat dry.
• In a medium bowl, mix pumpkin seeds, melted butter, sugar, salt, pumpkin spice, and cayenne pepper. Mix until well combined.
• Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 1 hour, turning seeds every 10 minutes.

Notes

This soup is freezer friendly!

NUTRITION:
Makes 4, 1 Cup Per Serving- (3 SmartPoints Per Serving)
CALORIES: 79 FAT: 3.8 SATURATED FAT: 2.3 CARBS: 11
FIBER: 2 SUGARS: 3.1 PROTEIN: 1.6

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