Seasonal Cuisine or Hi there, turnips, remember when you were in every root cellar?

French Pumpkin Soup

That's a French pumpkin on the left and a Curry or Kuri squash on the right.

1 TBLSP olive oil

2 leeks, most of the green trimmed off, chopped

3 white turnips peeled & diced

1 medium baking potato, diced

1 can of pumpkin or the equivalent fresh baked with the meat scooped out

4 C vegetable or chicken stock

1/3 C cream

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

Sauté leeks in oil for 8 minutes, then add turnips and potatoes and cook for another few minutes. Add broth and pumpkin and cook for 15 minutes or so until everything is tender. 

Pureé until smooth. (You know you can't put super hot liquid into a blender, right? So you have to cool it a bit and only put a ladle or two into the blender at a time. Leave the lid a bit loose.) 

Put pureéd soup back into the pot with the cream and reheat gently.

Serve with white wine and crusty bread.

This soup reminds me of my days as an au pair in Paris when Madame had me go to the open air market every morning to buy a turnip, a leek, a potato, and two carrots (unless she was in the mood to make lamb chops.) She cooked the chopped vegetables in a pressure cooker, and served it up sans purée-ing. Into the center of each bowl she swirled a bit of cream and plopped in a fat pat of butter.

My mom loved the soup I made tonight. She said that turnips just don't get their due nowadays. I'm going to serve it again tomorrow night with cheese and green onion quesadillas on the side-- and some sliced tomatoes.

Oh--and that Kuri squash. Not my favorite squash. I'm going to turn it into some kind of dessert.

Recipe from AboutFrenchCooking.com