Fall officially showed up for the party in the past week.  Cooler days, crisper air, cozy sweaters, and heartier comfort food.   Like soup.

I like soup.  A lot.  Especially soups I can drink from a mug while reading a good book. Soups don’t get much love over the summer months, but they sure get a lot of it once it gets cold.  Even still, I don’t make soup very often.  I’m not really sure why.  Maybe because it always feels just a bit too labour intensive.  To be fair though, it is probably less work than many other meals that I make.  This soup is one of the easiest.

Pumpkin and sweet potato soup.  It seemed to be everywhere for awhile and then it seemed to fall out of favour.  Maybe it was getting a bit cliche?  Who cares?  It tastes good and can be as simple or as involved as you care to make it.  When I made it for Thanksgiving dinner this year I did it the much more labour intensive way picking vegetables from the garden, cubing, dicing, using the immersion blender…. you get the idea.  The next time I opened a couple of cans, chopped one thing and used a potato masher.  When I make it again I’ll probably split the difference.

Ingredients

• 2 cans pureed pumpkin or 1 medium size pumpkin, diced
• 1 can pureed sweet potato or 2 large sweet potatoes, diced
• 2-4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1tsp butter (optional, but adds to richness)
• 1/4-1/2c sherry
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1tbsp cinnamom
• 1-2 tbsp chinese five spice powder
• 1tsp allspice
• cream or creme fraiche for drizzling

Method

• Place pumpkin, sweet potatoes and half of the stock in a soup pot.
• Add cinnamon, chinese five spice and allspice.
• Let cook until all unpureed/canned vegetables are soft.
• Add more stock if the soup is too thick. If desireed, puree further with a potato masher or an immersion blender.
• Before you want to serve add sherry and simmer for 15mins.  Add salt, pepper and any extra spices to taste.
• Serve with a drizzle of fresh cream or creme fraiche on top (fancy designs optional).

Makes 10 appetizer size mugs.