Halloween Pumpkin Soup Bowls with Gruyère Croutons
- Savory
- Comforting
- Oven
Whole small pumpkins roasted until tender, filled with a creamy garlicky pumpkin soup and topped with golden Gruyère croutons. A hearty, comforting centerpiece for Halloween.
- Total
- 1 h 50
- Prep 25 · Cook 75 · Rest 10
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Roasting · Caramelizing
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 200°C. Cut the tops off the 2 pumpkin pieces and scoop out the seeds and loose fibers, keeping the tops as lids.
~10 min
-
Set the hollowed pumpkins and their lids on a baking tray, rub the insides with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with 0.5 tsp salt. Roast until the flesh is tender when pierced with a knife, about 35 to 40 minutes.
~40 min
Roasting the empty shells first firms and dries them so they hold their shape and don't turn soggy once the soup goes in.
Roast the pumpkins cut-side up so their edges caramelize and the shells hold their shape for filling.
Roasting Roast cut-side up with space between pieces so edges caramelize instead of steaming; pierce with a knife to check tenderness rather than guessing by time.
-
While step 2 cooks
While the pumpkins roast, peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic. Toss them with the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil on a small baking tray and roast alongside the pumpkins until soft and lightly golden, about 20 minutes.
~20 min
Roasting rather than boiling the onion and garlic caramelizes their sugars, giving the soup a deeper, sweeter flavor than raw aromatics would.
Roasting Roast cut-side up with space between pieces so edges caramelize instead of steaming; pierce with a knife to check tenderness rather than guessing by time.
Caramelizing Spread the onion and garlic in a single layer and let them turn lightly golden at the edges; crowding the tray steams them instead of browning.
-
Scoop most of the roasted pumpkin flesh into a blender, leaving a 1 cm wall inside each shell. Add the roasted onion and garlic, 300 ml water, 150 ml cream, 0.5 tsp salt and 0.5 tsp black pepper. Blend until smooth, adding a splash more water if needed to make a pourable soup.
~8 min
Leaving a 1 cm wall keeps the shells sturdy enough to act as bowls, while blending the flesh with the liquid gives a silky, pourable soup.
-
Grate the gruyere. Cut the bread into 2 cm cubes, toss with the remaining 50 ml cream and half the gruyere, then scatter on a baking tray. Bake until the bread is golden and the cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.
~10 min
The cream soaks into the bread so it crisps at the edges while staying tender, and the cheese melts into a golden crust.
-
Pour the blended soup into the pumpkin shells, top with the remaining gruyere and bake until the soup is hot and the cheese is bubbling and browned, about 12 minutes.
~12 min
Baking the filled shells heats the soup through and browns the cheese topping, so everything is hot at once when it reaches the table.
-
Rest the filled pumpkins for 10 minutes before serving with the Gruyère croutons and the pumpkin lids alongside.
~10 min
A short rest lets the very hot soup and shells cool slightly and settle, so they're safer to handle and easier to eat.
