Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on October 10, 2022.
It is finally October, and everyone knows that means pumpkin season. Be it a decoration, an activity for your kids, a caffeinated beverage, or a meal, starting October 1st pumpkins are suddenly the fruit you find everywhere.
Pumpkins are sister plants to melons, cucumbers, watermelon, and summer squash, and were first domesticated in North America by Native Americans. Thanks to Native American farmers we can now enjoy this truly “American” food and appreciate the long and important history pumpkins hold on our land. There are now over 45 varieties of pumpkins to pick from, some for eating and some for decoration.
When it comes to growing pumpkins, it takes a skilled and patient farmer. To make those flawless shiny orbs you need a lot of water, time (it takes over 4 months for a pumpkin to mature!), and the right amount of protection from their many pests. Be it squash bugs that steal all the pumpkin plant’s sugars, powdery mildew that diseases the plants, or pill bugs nibbling away at the bottom of the pumpkins, growing pumpkins organically is quite the challenge.
I am sure that many of you only ever bought a pumpkin to carve it and stick it on your front porch. Those pumpkins are not the pumpkins you eat in your delicious pumpkin pie as they were bred to be low in sugars and instead be aesthetically pleasing. But at the Napa Farmers Market or other markets you can find edible pumpkins that make for a delicious culinary adventure.
A few years ago, my husband and I watched an episode of the late great Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown in which he visited the family of Chef Boulud in Lyon and made a whole pumpkin soup. Since then, we always dreamed to make this dish on a cold fall day. Truth be told it was not until just last week that we ever had the time to try the recipe, but it did not disappoint.
If you are holding a dinner party, want a complete change to your Thanksgiving menu, or even want to venture into your first pumpkin-cooking adventure with the most epic possible recipe, then this is the perfect recipe for you. It may seem daunting and difficult, but in truth it is a very forgiving and flexible recipe that requires less energy than carving a Jack-O’-Lantern.
I am sharing the recipe with personal notes on what ingredients you can find at the Napa Farmers Market, and from which vendors. Finally, do not feel beholden to any one way to make this recipe… look for different variations online and add or subtract ingredients as you please!
Whole Pumpkin Soup
Adapted by Robert Hines from Daniel Boulud’s Stuffed Cheese Pumpkin with Gruyere, Bacon and Walnuts recipe, and Bon Appetit’s Pumpkin Soup with Gruyere recipe by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer.
Ingredients
In italics are information on where to find ingredients at the Napa Farmers Market
1 large whole cooking pumpkin such as Musquee de Provence, Cinderella, or Jarrahdale
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ cup walnuts
All of the above can be found at the stand of most farmers at the Napa FM
1 lb smoked bacon cut in thin strips Find at Contimo
1 lb mushrooms such as chantarelles or black trumpet, chopped Find at Far West Fungi
Several slices of day-old bread, toasted Find at West Won Bread
3-5 cups stock (chicken or vegetable) Find at Contimo or make your own with a chicken from Channa Ranch and farm veggies
2 cups of grated Gruyere cheese or ask Achadinha Cheese Company if they have any recommendations
1-2 cups of cream or crème fraiche
1 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp ground Espelette pepper
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground clove
½ tsp ground nutmeg
5 fresh sage leaves, chopped
Salt and pepper
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees.
Cut off top of pumpkin at an angle as if carving a pumpkin. Scoop out seeds and strings until pumpkin is clean. Seeds can be cleaned and toasted in the oven lightly as a later garnish for the soup.
Sprinkle inside of pumpkin with salt, pepper, and all the spices. Remember, if you prefer to omit a spice here or there, this recipe is forgiving!
Fry bacon strips in a heavy pan until crisp. Remove bacon but use remaining bacon fat in the pan to cook onion, leeks, and garlic until translucent, then add mushrooms and further cook for 5 minutes.
In pumpkin, layer onion-mushroom mixture with the stale bread, walnuts, and cheese. Alternatively, for a gluten-free option you can omit the bread during the baking portion and use later when serving the soup.
Finally, partly fill pumpkin with cream or crème fraiche (depending on the size of your pumpkin you may want to add more or less cream) then fill the remaining portion with stock.
Cover pumpkin and place on a baking sheet and bake in center of oven for 2 – 4 hours (depending on size). It is important to give your pumpkin plenty of time so that the flesh is soft and tender. Pumpkin is done when the skin is browned and mostly bubbling off the flesh of the pumpkin, and a knife slides easily through the inside of the pumpkin meat (poke pumpkin from the top-inside cavity so as to not make a leak).
Ladle out the soup of the pumpkin (on bread if it was omitted during baking) and carefully scoop out chunks of the pumpkin flesh to place in soup. Enjoy!