Chicken Pumpkin Soup

This chicken pumpkin soup is a savory dish consisting of pumpkin, chicken, and ginger. It makes a cozy and warming fall meal.

This chicken pumpkin soup is a recipe that was created for the Multo - multi-purpose cooking appliance similar to a Thermomix - but can just as easily be made in a pot on the stove. Instructions for both are included below.

The recipe includes cubed pumpkin, chicken, ginger, onion, and herbs and spices. It makes a wonderful warming and filling meal especially in cold weather.

Ingredients

• Chicken thigh meat, rotisserie chicken, or leftover turkey (bite-sized pieces)
• Olive oil
• Pumpkin cubes (butternut, acorn, or kabocha)
• Flour or tapioca/corn starch (for gluten-free)
• Onion
• Ginger
• Butter or oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Thyme
• Bay leaf
• Peppercorn black or green (whole or cracked)
• Chicken stock

See recipe box for details.

Instructions

To begin making the recipe, you cut boneless, skinless chicken thighs into small bite-sized pieces before adding it to a mixing bowl and tossing it with olive oil to coat it. Then, you sauté it for 5 minutes, just until it gets some colour. Next, you set it aside while you move on to the next steps.

Preparing the Squash

The next step to making this delicious soup is to prepare the pumpkin by peeling and chopping it. This can be whatever your favourite pumpkin or squash is such as butternut squash, kabocha squash, or acorn squash. When you remove the seeds, be sure to hang onto them to roast in the oven with spices for a healthy snack.

The pumpkin or squash should be dusted with 2 ½ tablespoons flour in a separate bowl before you move on to the next step in the recipe. The flour helps with thickening the soup.

Adding the Remaining Ingredients

Next, you make a paste with the ginger and onion, in the mixing bowl with the blender function. Afterward, you add the butter and pumpkin to the mixing bowl so that they can cook and marry together for about 10 minutes.

At that point, the chicken, a ½ teaspoon each salt, pepper, and thyme, a bay leaf, and freshly cracked peppercorns go into the mixing bowl, along with chicken broth. This mixture should simmer for approximately 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft enough to eat. The final step is to taste and adjust the seasonings of the soup if desired. You can also stir in some fresh chopped parsley or fresh cilantro if you have it on hand or include it as a garnish on top of the bowls of soup.

Ingredient Substitutions

While this chicken pumpkin soup recipe is perfect as it is, rest assured, it has some versatility if you have other ingredients you would like to use. Firstly, if you don't have fresh chicken thighs on hand, you can use either leftover cooked shredded chicken or roast turkey for your protein instead. As a result, this soup would be perfect to make after a roast turkey dinner at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

You can also feel free to choose whatever type of pumpkin or squash you like the best as long as it will hold its shape as cubes. While spaghetti squash may not be a great choice, butternut squash, acorn, or kabocha all hold their shape during cooking. Even, if you are short on squash, you could include other chopped vegetables such as carrots or sweet potatoes, if you like. However, if you substitute squash with other vegetables, keep in mind that you may have to adjust the cooking time.

The ginger is a perfect, complementing aromatic here. But if you don't like or have any ginger on hand, 1-2 garlic cloves could be used in its place. However, garlic might overpower the other intricate flavors in the soup like thyme and squash.

Finally, if you don't have chicken stock available to you, it is easy to replace with another type of stock such as vegetable stock or even water. Additionally, you may like to use a low salt chicken stock if you are trying to eat low sodium. You can also mix the water with a little powdered bouillon for extra flavour in a pinch.

Serving Suggestions

Like all great soups, this chicken pumpkin soup is excellent served with fresh bread and butter. You may also want to try it with warm naan bread, pita bread, or freshly baked biscuits as an alternative.

Soups are also wonderful with a green salad on the side, such as baby kale or spinach with apple cider vinaigrette or a caesar salad.

Besides the side dishes to go with this soup, you may decide you would like to serve it with an elegant garnish or blend it with other ingredients. Here are some ideas:

• Drizzle the soup with heavy cream or coconut milk once dished into bowls.
• Top it with toasted pumpkin or squash seeds.
• Decorate bowls of soup with leftover basil pesto.
• Garnish with fresh herbs such as chopped parsley, cilantro, scallion or fresh thyme leaves.
• Stir leftover rice, quinoa, or black beans into the soup before serving for a heartier, stew-like consistency.

Find even more savory pumpkin recipes here.

Common Questions

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