The Frost is on the Pumpkin!

Pumpkin Bean Soup, that is.

Fall is my favorite season. And though frost hasn’t yet arrived this far south, I’m looking forward to brisk mornings and brightly colored trees. With October here, it’s a great time to make Pumpkin Bean Soup, a delicious combination that is very easy to prepare if you make use of canned ingredients.

Pumpkin and beans along with tomatoes are foods that don’t suffer from the canning process and are readily available without additives. I also often rely on prepared broths—chicken, beef, or vegetable. There are a number of these on the market that are simple and good for cooking. Some brands come in 32 ounce cartons while others are available in 14 ounce cans. For the recipe below, use 2 cans or 1 carton. Half a cup won’t make that much difference. But don’t be afraid to juggle the proportions to suit yourself. Though I prefer chicken broth here you could use vegetable broth.

Pumpkin Bean Soup

Chop into small dice 1 small onion, 2 bunches of scallions, 2 carrots, 1 small turnip, 2 celery stalks. Sauté them in a small amount of olive oil until they begin to soften.

Pour in chicken broth and a dash of Tabasco. Cook a few minutes. Add 3 cans of drained white beans such as navy or great northern, 4-5 fresh sage leaves finely chopped or a fat pinch of dried sage, and 1 can of pumpkin. (This should be plain pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix which has sugar and spices.) You might need to add more broth as this cooks.

When vegetables are nearly tender, add 2 or 3 large Portabella mushrooms, cut into chunks. Shiitake mushrooms are also very good if you like their strong flavor, but chop them more finely than the Portabellas. Add several grinds of black pepper and salt if needed.

Pumpkin has an affinity for the flavor of Gruyère cheese so I grate some over the surface of the soup after I’ve ladled it into the bowls. We have a bakery nearby that bakes a rough, crunchy 8-grain loaf that is particularly good with this hearty soup.

When I served Pumpkin Bean Soup to an informal gathering last winter, a friend brought a simple salad that was the perfect accompaniment. She assembled the salads directly on the plates. Here is what she did.

Sandy’s Salad

For each salad: On a bed of leaf lettuce slice a quarter of an unpeeled pear. Scatter on a few pine nuts. (You may roast the pine nuts for fuller flavor.) Strew some Gorgonzola over the top. Sprinkle with a very few drops of an excellent Balsamic vinegar. Top with a grind of pepper.