A creamy, velvety pumpkin soup with a Southwestern kick. This healthy low carb soup is rich enough to be the meal! Easy to make in your slow cooker or on your stovetop.
You may have heard that I am moving. I may have made mention of that fact a few times around here. I may have also mentioned that this move is pretty significant, that it’s from one coast of the country to the other. With three young kids. In the middle of the school year. There is so much to do and if I think about it too much, I get almost paralyzed by it all and I feel incapable of doing any of it. Overwhelmed? Yep, I am overwhelmed. And bone tired because all the crazy logistics are keeping me up at night.
I need easy as much as possible. I am not good at easy, as I have quite a talent for making things more complicated than they need to be. But I need to cut corners where I can and keep the simple things simple, without doing my usual routine of adding little extras here and there. The little extras don’t seem like much at the time, but they all add up and then I wonder how things got so complicated. I often do this with meals. I start out with a simple idea and I think I will jazz it up a bit and maybe add a little extra here, a little extra there. Suddenly it’s 7pm and I am scrambling to get my overly complicated meal on the table while hungry kids whine about how hungry they are.
This soup, though…this soup is pretty darn simple. Pumpkin, chicken stock, some spices and some sharp Cheddar, all simmered and blended together. It’s deceptively simple because the flavour, with the cumin and chipotle powder, is tantalizing. A southwestern tang with a creamy smooth pumpkin base. The cheddar makes it velvety smooth too. And then I added some cooked chorizo. Because come on, I couldn’t allow it to be that simple. It’s a sickness, really.
The real intention behind making this soup, besides having a simple and delicious meal, was to showcase some of the cheeses from the Cabot Farmer’s Legacy Collection. Let me be clear that Cabot has not paid me to say any of this, unless you count paying me in bricks of cheese. And since they are worth their weight in gold, I guess that might be payment enough. I have been so fortunate to connect with Cabot and to run twice with the Cabot FitTeam. And I have been the beneficiary of some amazing deliveries of their cheese. The Legacy Collection is comprised of three very distinct cheddars. I am partial to the smooth taste of the White Oak, but I’ve been won over by the nutty, almost Swiss-like Alpine Cheddar. And my littlest loves the Farmhouse Reserve, it’s one of the few cheeses she will actually eat!
And since Cabot and New England go together like cheddar and cheese, I feel a little like I am leaving them behind too. I am sure they sell Cabot in some stores in Oregon but it won’t have the sort of amazing variety you see in the Boston area. And if you’ve ever been to Vermont, oh my! The Cabot love is huge in Vermont and it’s everywhere you go. I’m going to miss that terribly. So this recipe is made in honour of Cabot and all their amazing cheese. Thanks so much for letting me be a part of the Cabot world.
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Cheddar Soup with Chorizo
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion minced
- 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
- 4 cups chicken broth preferably homemade
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp chipotle powder or more to taste, if you like it spicy. We do!
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese grated (I recommend Cabot Farmhouse Reserve)
- 1 lb chorizo or other spicy sausage cooked and crumbled
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add onion, pumpkin puree, chicken broth, salt, cumin, garlic powder, chipotle powder and pepper to a large slow cooker. Stir well and cook on low for 4 hours or on high for 2 hours.
- Add shredded cheese and let melt, then blend soup with an immersion blender or transfer to a large blender or food processor (you may need to work in batches).
- Spoon into bowls and sprinkle each with chorizo.
- You can also make this recipe on the stove, in a large saucepan or stockpot. Simply simmer the ingredients from the first step for 20 minutes or so before adding the cheese and blending.
Notes
Saturated fatty acids: 15.90g
Total fat: 34.86g
Calories from fat: 313
Cholesterol: 83mg
Carbohydrate: 10.68g
Total dietary fiber: 2.46g
Protein: 20.73g
Sodium: 1355mg (this will be less if it's homemade broth)
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john chamberlain says
hello ma’am.
i just recently found your recipes but as yet haven’ tried any. i plan on remedying that soon.
i did want to let you know, if your other fans haven’t yet that you aren’t out of luck, cheese-wise, in moving to Oregon. the teaming metropolis of Tillamook is located on the coast, less than two hours from Portland i’m sure you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for there.
Carolyn says
Tillamook is fine. But it doesn’t hold a candle to Cabot in terms of flavor. Trust me, I’ve had plenty of both… Cabot wins every time.