Pumpkins are in season right now and although a lot of varieties of winter squash are available all winter, pumpkins usually disappear quickly after Halloween so I have been wanting to do more with them while they are here. In fact I have several pie pumpkins sitting on my counter just waiting to be used and I figured that it was a perfect time to do so. With the cooling weather I was thinking that a pumpkin soup would hit the spot.
After contemplating about pumpkin soups for a while I settled in on the idea of a thick soup base using pumpkin puree flavoured with pancetta and sage. With that in mind I started to build the soup up with a base of onions, carrots, celery and garlic. From there I added some broth and pumpkin puree as the liquids followed by the pancetta and sage for the flavour. I particularly enjoy beans in soup and since I could not shake the idea of adding some white beans, I did so to make the soup even heartier. I also kept coming back to the thought of using a ham hock to add even more smokey flavour and then I remembered seeing smoked turkey legs at the store and the turkey and pumpkin combo sounded perfect so I went with that. Both a ham hock and a smoked turkey leg can be simmered in soups to impart their tremendous flavour to the soup and then if you like you can pull the meat off of the bones and add it to the soup after it is done simmering. With that decision made, I knew that my roast pumpkin soup would just be packed with flavour and I had my recipe!
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