Curry Pumpkin Soup

Still wondering what to do with the Halloween pumpkin?  Here is an idea.  This is how Catherine's pumpkin went down and today Mary's is also going into soup.  She is hoping I will save back a few cups of the already roasted and blended pumpking for cookies.  We will see.

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 onion, medium dice
2. 1 tablespoon coconut oil, ghee, or clarified butter
3. 2-4 garlic cloves, minced
4. 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
5. 1 teaspoon curry powder
6. 3/4 teaspoon coriander
7. 1/2 teaspoon cumin
8. 1/4 teaspoon cloves
9. 1 medium-sized (2-pound) pumpkin, cut in half with seeds and pulp removed
10. 3 1/2 cups stock, vegetable or chicken
11. 1/2 cup coconut milk
12. Cayenne pepper, to taste
13. Salt, to taste
14. 1 7-ounce container Greek yogurt, for garnish
15. Toasted pumpkin seeds, for garnish
16. Parsley or cilantro, for garnish

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Rub pumpkin halves with coconut oil, ghee, or butter. Then place flesh-side down on a foil-lined cookie sheet and roast for 45 minutes or until flesh is tender when pricked with a fork. Once cool enough to touch, scoop pumpkin flesh out from the skins and set aside for later use.
2. Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat, and melt oil or butter. Add onion and do not stir. Allow onions to brown on one side, then flip them in one move and do not stir again, allowing onions to brown on other side. Add garlic and ginger, stir, and cook for 1-2 minutes, until garlic becomes fragrant and slightly brown. Add curry powder, coriander, cumin, and cloves, and constantly stir until spices become toasted and fragrant, about 60 seconds. Add stock, coconut milk, and pumpkin, and bring to a boil.
3. Turn off heat, and use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth. Alternatively, transfer soup in batches to a blender, and blend until smooth. Once soup is completely smooth, turn flame back on to medium-high heat and bring soup to a simmer.
4. Serve soup with a dollop of Greek yogurt, tablespoon of pumpkin seeds, and pinch of parsley or cilantro leaves.

If soup is too thick, add more stock to thin it out. In addition, if soup is too thick whe  n reheating leftovers, add more stock until the desired consistency is reached.  We ate ours when it was very thick.   In this case "we" is Arta, Catherine and Hebe.  I think the soup was rejected by all others.  Hebe was murmuring small sounds of great happiness when she was eating hers.

Thanks to Anna Monette Roberts at Sugar Pop