MoFo #16: Pumpkin soup with pumpkin seed-mint pesto

More pumpkin and more Sunset recipes!  This one is featured on the front of the this month’s issue and immediately drew my eye.

This time I tried out a sugar pie pumpkin.  It has a nice mild, sweet taste and a smooth texture.  The actual recipe’s pretty simple: saute up some onion, garlic, fresh ginger, and coriander.  Add some pumpkin, stock, salt, pepper and simmer till soft.  I pureed everything at the end and added some soy milk powder for creaminess.

The mint pesto was really cool and really tasty!  I was actually going to pass over this recipe until I saw Urban Vegan’s MoFo post about various pestos and their uses.   I didn’t mortar and pestle it all like the recipe says….the food processor is much easier but the pesto isn’t quite as pretty.

So what’s the verdict?  Honestly, I think the soup was pretty bland and needed way more spice.  I ended up mixing in a lot of the pesto to add flavor.  The mint was a pretty neat complement for the pumpkin along with the crunch from the pepitas.  I don’t know about the coriander.  I couldn’t really taste it.  I think the ginger was a good call and added more.  Curry powder would actually taste really good in this.  Next time I will try that.  So…overall it came out pretty and was fun to make but the recipe could use a little inspiration.  But YAY for more vegan-friendly recipes in Sunset!