Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup

The weather has taken an unspeakably sharp turn for the worst recently. Torrential winds and rain on Thursday turned into a full-blown snowstorm by the week’s end, leaving me to wonder whether I should carve pumpkins or have a snowball fight on Saturday afternoon. (I ended up doing neither, and drank wine and made movie-night treats instead.)

In an attempt to ward off the cold, I made this pumpkin and black bean soup Thursday night, an homage to Halloween in both color and taste. It’s both trick and treat: warm, smoky, sweet, creamy. And unlike most soups and stews, it takes little time to make, requiring only the chopping of an onion and some garlic and the opening of a few cans in terms of work. Relying on cumin, cayenne, chili powder and curry powder for flavor, the soup manages to capture the essence of “cold-weather food” without being overly rich.

The inclusion of curry powder scared me at first, since I’ve never cooked with it before. Curry powder is a blend of spices, usually coriander, cumin, fenugreek, black pepper and turmeric, as well as cinnamon, nutmeg, caraway, fennel, mustard seed, ginger, garlic — depending on the recipe, there can be endless possibilities.

Because blends can vary wildly, my family never uses it (I don’t think I had ever encountered it until college), but for the purposes of not overcomplicating a very simple recipe, I used it this time. (My powder was a blend of tumeric, fenugreek, coriander, mustard flour, cumin, ginger root, black pepper, allspice, cayenne and fennel.) The flavor imparted is mildly “Indian,” with hints to the food I grew up with, though it was very clear that my mom must use a different blend for her food.

Not only did this soup cure me of my weather-related malaise (maybe the wine helped), it also cured me of my aversion to pumpkin soup. Like with butternut squash, I find that too many pumpkin soups are cloying, too full of cinnamon and cream to be anything other than liquid pie filling. Most gourds are already inherently sweet, so I much prefer recipes that balance that sweetness with spice. This soup packs in tons of spice, especially once I dumped in a good heaping of chili powder.

If only it could dry out my still rain-soaked shoes. Now that would be truly magical.

Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup
Adapted from Rachael Ray

– 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

– 1 medium onion, finely chopped

– 2 cloves garlic, minced

– 3 cups vegetable stock (I used chicken, since that’s what I had on hand)

– 2 tablespoons tomato paste

– 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed

– 1 29-ounce can pure pumpkin puree

– 1 cup half-and-half or heavy cream

– 1 tablespoon curry powder

– 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

– 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

– 1 teaspoon chili powder

– salt and pepper, to taste

1) Heat oil in a large soup pot and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes, until the onions are softened and slightly translucent.

2) Add the broth, tomatoes, black beans and pumpkin puree. Stir to combine ingredients and bring soup to a boil.

3) Reduce the heat to medium low and stir in the half-and-half, curry powder, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, then adjust seasonings and serve.

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