This pumpkin soup recipe is a Caribbean style soup dish made from pureed calabaza pumpkin and yellow yam. It's delicious, vegan friendly with a silky smooth texture. It's perfect to serve during the holidays season or as an alternative to traditional Saturday soup.
To my island readers, we know that Saturday is traditionally our soup day. It doesn't matter if the sun is beating down or if you're living the cold diaspora on a rainy day.
Soup on a Saturday is akin to our culture, I love my Saturday soup and grew up on soup that contained various meats .i.e chicken, beef, mutton etc... with hard food/ground provisions, you know cassava, green banana, yam, cocoyam, dasheen etc...
Since becoming a food blogger, I've become a lot more adventurous with my soup. While I love my hard food soup, I also have a great appreciation for pureed/creamy soup especially like this vegan pumpkin soup recipe.
The pureed soup doesn't get much love in my humble opinion, when is the last time you visited a Caribbean take away and saw it on the menu? See what I mean!
Nothing beats some good old pumpkin soup, you can't go wrong with it. Sometimes it's just nice to switch things up and this is what I did in the case with this recipe.
I want you all to know that it's okay to have some cream of pumpkin soup on Saturday, plus it's a great soup to serve to your guest especially during the holidays i.e Thanksgiving, Christmas and so fourth...
Let me tell you, this recipe is extremely easy, you don't have to go hunting down a variety of root vegetables as you would do with with some thing like chicken soup.
All you need is some Caribbean pumpkin (calabaza), you know the once that you can ask the vendor to cut into the amount of slices that you need and some yellow yam.
I say yellow yam and not white yam because it has a natural sweet edge to it, although some can have a slightly bitter after taste at times.
The benefits
This soup is more carb loaded from the use of pumpkin and yellow yam but don't be alarmed as I always like to point out ALL CARBS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL!
The calories/carb intake from yellow yam and pumpkin is not the same as cookies or a patty. They are refined foods well as this soup isn't, that's the main difference.
Pumpkin is extremely healthy and good for you, it serves as a great source of vitamin A which helps to protect our eyes and reduce the risk of eye related disease.
Along with vitamin C and E which helps with immunity and collagen in the skin.
Yellow yam by default is a good source of fibre which helps to ease any constipation and promote healthy bowel movements.
Keep these positive benefits in mind the next time you review the overall calorie in take of a recipe such as this one.
It's more healthy, wholesome, energizing and nourishing than a bag of French fries/cookies or a patty.
Don't forget to checkout my Caribbean Veganuary recipe roundup.
The steps
- Preheat oven at 200c/400f/gas mark 6
- Place the pumpkin and yellow yam on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, coated with oil.
- Coat the tops of the vegetable with olive oil.
- Roast the vegetables for roughly 35 minutes or until they are golden turn.
- Meanwhile, on medium heat, add the olive oil to a heavy duty pan then proceed to saute the onion, scallion, garlic and ginger until soft and translucent.
- Add the vegetable stock, coconut milk, roasted pumpkin and the yellow yam then season with scotch bonnet, thyme, chadon beni, nutmeg and cinnamon.
- Bring the mixture to a rolling boil then reduce to a low simmer for about 5-10 minutes, giving enough time for the flavours to yield.
- Once the mixture has done cooking either use an immersion stick to puree or a blender. I prefer to use my blender where possible to do this and puree into a smooth consistency. Work in batches if necessary!
- Do a taste test and add pink salt and black pepper to taste.
Note and tips
- If you cannot get calabaza pumpkin simply use butternut squash instead.
- Head to a Caribbean supermarket or neighbourhood for some calabaza pumpkin, refer to the picture as this shows what you are looking for.
- The amount of scotch bonnet/chilli used it subjective to YOUR preference. If you like hots of heat add a half scotch bonnet with seeds, if you want less, use very little or none at all.
- This is the Homemade Vegetable Broth, that I used
- If you find the soup too thick, simply add some more vegetable broth/water to thin it out.
- I found that the yellow yam roasted quicker then the pumpkin, so simply remove any chunks that roast quicker then ones.
- Sometimes yellow yam can have a slightly bitter after taste, if that is the case, simply add 2 tablespoon of maple syrup/agave nectar to balance this out.
- This recipe makes a HUGE batch so when adding it to the blender, you may need to do so in batches.
- This recipe is freezer friendly so feel free to freeze down any leftovers for up to 3 months.
More Caribbean soups to try
- Red Pea Soup
- Trinidad Corn Soup
- Caribbean Detox Soup
- Cuban Black Bean Soup
- Caribbean Pumpkin Lentil Soup
- Gungo Peas Soup
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Caribbean Pumpkin Soup (Vegan, Pureed Version)
Ingredients
- 1½-2 lb pumpkin (680g-1kg) chopped and peeled
- ½ lb yellow yam (230g) chopped and peeled
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 scallion sliced
- ½ inch ginger minced
- ½ of scotch bonnet use more or less depending on the level of heat you want. (or ½ teaspoon chilli flakes/powder)
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme leaves removed (or use 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 teaspoon chandon beni (spirit weed/culantro/cilantro)
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg (2.5g)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (2.5g)
- 2 cups coconut milk (400ml or 14oz can)
- 4 cups vegetable stock (1 litre) see notes for the recipe
- black pepper and pink salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 200c/400f/gas mark 6
- Place the pumpkin and yellow yam on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, coated with oil.
- Coat the tops of the vegetable with olive oil.
- Roast the vegetables for roughly 35 minutes or until they are golden turn.
- Meanwhile, on medium heat, add the olive oil to a heavy duty pan then proceed to saute the onion, scallion, garlic and ginger until soft and translucent.
- Add the vegetable stock, coconut milk, roasted pumpkin and the yellow yam then season with scotch bonnet, thyme, chadon beni, nutmeg and cinnamon.
- Bring the mixture to a rolling boil then reduce to a low simmer for about 5-10 minutes, giving enough time for the flavours to yield.
- Once the mixture has done cooking either use an immersion stick to puree or a blender. I prefer to use my blender where possible to do this and puree into a smooth consistency. Work in batches if necessary!
- Do a taste test and add pink salt and black pepper to taste.
Notes
- If you cannot get calabaza pumpkin simply use butternut squash instead.
- Head to a Caribbean supermarket or neighbourhood for some calabaza pumpkin, refer to the picture as this shows what you are looking for.
- The amount of scotch bonnet/chilli used it subjective to YOUR preference. If you like hots of heat add a half scotch bonnet with seeds, if you want less, use very little or none at all.
- This is the Homemade Vegetable Broth, that I used
- If you find the soup too thick, simply add some more vegetable broth/water to thin it out.
- I found that the yellow yam roasted quicker then the pumpkin, so simply remove any chunks that roast quicker then ones.
- Sometimes yellow yam can have a slightly bitter after taste, if that is the case, simply add 2 tablespoon of maple syrup/agave nectar to balance this out.
- This recipe makes a HUGE batch so when adding it to the blender, you may need to do so in batches.
- This recipe is freezer friendly so feel free to freeze down any leftovers for up to 3 months.
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