Garden Soup

My family loves soup. I stopped buying canned soup when I found out most cans were lined with BPA. Which added to my workload: now I have to make homemade soup.  Nothing is nicer, though, than hot soup on a crisp, fall day (or a wet, rainy fall/winter/spring day as we get on the west coast of BC).   Having recently made broth from one of our roasted chickens, I thought about what ingredients I had in the pantry to make a good soup.  Not much.  Then I looked at my curing pumpkins.  Pumpkin soup! 

The first time I tasted pumpkin soup was in an Andean village in Peru.  Made with goat milk and thick with pumpkin and spices, the rich taste, texture and aroma were to die for.  Goat milk is naturally homogenized and our breed of goats (Nigerian Dwarf) is especially high in milk fat.  So, after doing a quick search online for a pumpkin soup recipe I took one and altered it to what I had in my garden.  Essentially, this is a "sustainable soup" since (almost) all of the ingredients were either born and raised or grown on our property.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 tbsp fresh chopped thyme (or 2 tsp. dried)
• 5 black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup carrot greens (not chopped.  Remove after cooking)
• 4 cups cooked and pureed pumpkin
• 1 cup whole goats milk
• Carrot tops for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pot, fry onions and garlic in butter until onions are translucent. 
2. Add chicken broth, thyme, peppercorns, salt, carrot greens, and pureed pumpkin to onion mixture.
3. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Simmer for about 30 minutes, uncovered.  Turn off heat.  Remove carrot tops. Puree soup in a blender, in small amounts, or use a hand blender directly in the pot.  Blend until smooth.  Add milk and stir until blended.  Add carrot tops for garnish and serve hot!

Notes:

• Carrot tops taste much like parsley.  I used my own carrot tops, unsprayed, from my garden.  Remove carrot tops before pureeing soup.  You can eat them but they change the texture. 
• Our goat milk has virtually no "goaty" taste.  No one would ever guess the soup was made with anything but cream. 
• Ingredients can be altered.  For example, use regular milk or cream to replace goat milk.  Use squash if you don't have pumpkin etc. 

Serve with fresh vegetables, cheese and fresh bread!

There is something very gratifying about creating a meal that is exclusively produced on your own property.  The chicken broth was from our own chickens, the milk from our own goat, and the vegetables from our own garden.  I didn't grow thyme this year so I used dried thyme from my pantry.  Yum!  And the aroma from the soup will fill your house with a delicious, harvest fragrance which will warm any fall day. 

Recipe inspired by Pumpkin Soup Recipe

This post has been linked up to Fat Tuesday: Real Food Forager.  Check it out!