Pumpkin Hazelnut Soup

So I bought this adorable little pumpkin a week or so ago. You can only imagine the squeel of glee when I saw pumpkins at the market. That's right - glee. There is no other word to describe it without sounding like Donna Reed. But hey, whatever, I gots me a pumpkin! I had it sitting out in a place of honor for a bit. Every day or so, I'd turn it around while I was gazing lovingly at it trying to figure out what to make with it.

Today my pumpkin turned itself into pumpkin soup, though I'm not sure if it will turn back after midnight or not. The weather in Vancouver has been awesomely fall-like for the past few days, which only made me more excited to make this tonight.

I've been eyeing some of the different oils at the market and decided that hazelnut would be an excellent compliment to pumpkin. If you don't want to buy hazelnut oil then you can skip that part of the soup. I'm going to try and find some other things to cook with it now that I have a whole bottle.

Pumpkin Hazelnut Soup

1 adorable pie pumpkin
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion (yellow or white), chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 Tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped oregano
2 Tablespoons fresh chopped sage
4 Cups vegetable broth
2 Tablespoons tahini
2 teaspoons hazelnut oil
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the top off of the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds. Cut the pumpkin into about 8 large pieces and make sure to cut the stringy stuff off. Lightly coat the pumpkin with canola oil and bake in a 350F oven for about 45 minutes. Let the pumpkin cool and then cut the skin off and cut it into little cubes.

In a soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 5-7 minutes. You want it to get translucent and just start to caramelize. Add the grated ginger and grated carrot. Stir and cook for another minute. Add the oregano and sage and cook for another 2 minutes or so.

Add the vegetable broth and stir it up. Now add the pumpkin cubes. Let everything cook until it's just warmed, not boiling. At this point if you have an immersion blender, stick it in the pot and blend everything up. If not, you can use a regular blender or food processor to blend the soup until it's smooth. After it's blended, put it back in the pot if you took it out to blend it. Add the tahini and stir until it's completely combined. Now let the soup simmer on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Don't let it boil, but it's okay if it gets close to boiling. Drizzle the hazelnut oil on top and stir that in as well. Let the soup cook for another minute or two just to let the flavors mix together. Add a little bit of salt and pepper if you want to.

I garnished mine with some pumpkin seeds that I had already, but I'm going to roast the ones from this pumpkin and eat them later on this week.