I love butternut squash. I really miss them. I was able to use it once in Manila but I've never seen it again. Living abroad has the perks of having a variety of produce that I cannot find here. But I have to stop daydreaming and just use what we have locally.
Whenever I roast pumpkin for the lunch delivery, there's always extra, sometimes way too much. It's either I save it for a grain bowl or I make soup. Soup is my fallback when I'm in desperate measures most especially when my hands are full. I have stocks of soup in the freezer and it's easier to reheat than making a full meal. And this pumpkin and black bean soup keeps me full and satisfied. Canned black beans are great but cooking beans from scratch is even better. While stock is recommended for this soup whether chicken or vegetable; water, which I use, is good enough.
When making soups, I usually sweat the onions, carrots or celery first but what I did is I roasted the onions and the garlic along with the pumpkin. Then, I just dump everything in a pot with black beans with stock or water. This makes my life easier. And you can adjust if you want or less of the roasted pumpkin or the black beans. The recipe below is just a guide.
Roasted Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup
1.5 lbs Pumpkin
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups cooked black beans
4 to 6 cups stock or water
1/2 tablespoon paprika
Sea salt, to taste
juice of 1/2 a lemon or to taste
Preheat oven to 375 F. Cut the pumpkin into 4 6 pieces. Remove the core and root of the onions and cut it in half. Toss with olive oil. Place the them cut side down along with unpeeled garlic on a baking sheet and roast until tender about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the garlic after 15 minutes.
When the pumpkin is soft and cooled, scrape out and discard the seeds and stringy fiber. Scoop out the pulp from the skin.
In a blender, puree in batches the squash, onion, broth, paprika and 2 cups of the black beans. Return the puree to pot with the remaining cup of black beans. If necessary, add stock to thin the soup to a desired consistency. Bring to a simmer. Season with salt to taste.
Warm soup on medium-low heat for 10 minutes to blend flavors. Add the lemon juice and ladle into soup bowls and finish a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and chili flakes.
If you happen to have extra pumpkin, you can also make this Roasted Pumpkin Chickpea Soup. It has almost the same procedure.
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