Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Soup
This pumpkin soup recipe is creamy AND healthy! It calls for roasted pumpkin for maximum flavor. This pumpkin soup is great with sandwiches and salads!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 5, 2024
Meet my favorite pumpkin soup recipe. It’s super creamy (thanks mostly to the pumpkin, with a little help from coconut milk or cream) yet plenty healthy, too. It’s gently spiced, but I made sure that the pumpkin flavor shines above the rest.
This dairy-free pumpkin soup would be a welcome addition to your holiday table. It would be equally at home with a soup or sandwich from fall through winter.
It’s easy to make and the leftovers taste even better the next day. So, you could certainly make the soup a day in advance. Don’t be intimidated by the ingredient list—this soup only requires basic pantry ingredients!
This soup was inspired by my recent trip to Portland. While I was there, I went to lunch with my baby brother and our friend Bill. I’ve written about Bill over the years—in summary, Bill beat leukemia with the help of my stem cells. He’s the toughest guy I know.
Now we’re friends who share the same immune system and we finally got to meet a few weeks ago. (You can join the registry here.)
We shared lunch and an afternoon at Multnomah Falls. It was a damp, gray fall day in the Pacific Northwest and it was perfect.
Bill picked The Picnic House for lunch. You really have to go next time you’re in Portland. “Unique” doesn’t begin to describe it—the restaurant feels like an old school theater inside, with different scenes set up in every corner and amazing food everywhere the eye can see.
I was tempted to order every item on the menu, but after much deliberation, I finally settled on a small soup, salad and sandwich. I might just have to recreate all three of them for the blog (so good), but homemade pumpkin soup seemed most timely.
I can’t say that my version is exactly the same, but it is equally satisfying and fresh. It’s utterly delicious in its own right.
Pumpkin Options
This pumpkin soup recipe includes instructions on how to roast fresh pumpkin, for maximum pumpkin flavor. Canned pumpkin purée also works well, if you’re in a time crunch. See the recipe notes for details!
Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments. I’m always so eager for your feedback. If you’re craving more cozy fall soups, don’t miss my butternut soup, lentil soup or minestrone.
Watch How to Make Pumpkin Soup
Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Soup
This pumpkin soup recipe is creamy AND healthy! It calls for roasted pumpkin for maximum flavor. This roasted pumpkin soup recipe would look lovely on your holiday dinner table, and leftovers would go great with sandwiches or salads the next day. Recipe yields 4 bowls or 6 cups of soup.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- One 4-pound sugar pie pumpkin
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 4 large or 6 medium garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- Tiny dash of cayenne pepper (optional, if you like spice)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 4 cups (32 ounces) vegetable broth
- ½ cup full fat coconut milk or heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- ¼ cup pepitas (green pumpkin seeds)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup. Carefully halve the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds (you can roast the seeds if you’d like—see note—but you won’t need them for this recipe).
- Slice each pumpkin halve in half to make quarters. Brush or rub 1 tablespoon olive oil over the flesh of the pumpkin and place the quarters, cut sides down, onto the baking sheet. Roast for 35 minutes or longer, until the orange flesh is easily pierced through with a fork. Set it aside to cool for a few minutes.
- Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add onion, garlic and salt to the skillet. Stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, about 8 to 10 minutes. In the meantime, peel the pumpkin skin off the pumpkins and discard the skin.
- Add the pumpkin flesh, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cayenne pepper (if using), and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper. Use your stirring spoon to break up the pumpkin a bit. Pour in the broth. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, to give the flavors time to meld.
- While the soup is cooking, toast the pepitas in a medium skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant, golden and making little popping noises. You want them to be nice and toasty, but not burnt. Transfer pepitas to a bowl to cool.
- Once the pumpkin mixture is done cooking, stir in the coconut milk and maple syrup. Remove the soup from heat and let it cool slightly. You can use an immersion blender to blend this soup in the pot. I prefer to use my stand blender, which yields the creamiest results—working in batches, transfer the contents of the pan to a blender (do not fill your blender past the maximum fill line!). Securely fasten the blender’s lid and use a kitchen towel to protect your hand from steam escaping from the top of the blender as you purée the mixture until smooth. Transfer the puréed soup to a serving bowl and repeat with the remaining batches.
- Taste and adjust if necessary (I thought the soup was just right as is, but you might want to add more coconut milk for extra creaminess/milder flavor, or maple syrup to make it a little sweeter).
- Ladle the soup into individual bowls. Sprinkle pepitas over the soup and serve. Let leftover soup cool completely before transferring it to a proper storage container and refrigerating it for up to 4 days (leftovers taste even better the next day!). Or, freeze this soup for up to 3 months.
Notes
Soup inspired by the pumpkin soup at The Picnic House in Portland and roughly adapted from my curried butternut soup.
Make it dairy free: Use coconut milk, not heavy cream.
Make it vegan: Use coconut milk and maple syrup.
Change it up: Kabocha squash works instead of pumpkin, and I bet butternut squash would work well, too.
If you want to use canned pumpkin: Instead of roasting the pumpkin, you can substitute two to three cans of pumpkin purée (15 ounces each). Just skip steps 1 and 2, and add two cans of pumpkin purée in step 4. You’ll still want to blend the soup for the best texture; add more pumpkin purée at that point if you’d like thicker soup.
How to roast pumpkin seeds: Pick off all the flesh bits from the seeds and discard them. I like to do this in a colander under running water. Pat the seeds dry with a tea towel or paper towels. Toss the seeds with a little olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and any other seasonings that sound good (I tossed my pumpkin seeds with 1 teaspoon brown sugar and ½ teaspoon curry powder). Toss to coat. Line a small, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the pumpkin seeds in a single layer. Roast for 13 to 16 minutes, until the seeds are fragrant and toasty.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This was wonderful!! Planned to use two cans of Pumpkin but only had one, so i added carrots to the onion sauté.
Kate, I love your work and recipes!! Thank you
Thanks for sharing how you made this work, Kiki!
Hi, just wondering if I can make this without cream or coconut milk? Would I need to add something else you think? Thanks
To get is creamy, you really need the cream. You can omit if you like, but the texture and flavor will both be very different.
The recipe seems wonderful. How can I avoid cream to keep fat content as LOW as possible.
Can pureed mumpkin be used instead of the cream?
I would be most grateful for your thoughts. Thank you so much,
Hi Irene, You could use a lower fat cream base version? Or you could reduce your serving.
Great soup! I made it with the guts of 3 pumpkins! I also added a bit of pumpkin butter and Carmel apple cider in replace of some honey. Still added some honey but not a lot.
My question is, how long will this stay in the freezer. Wanna give some to my bf but won’t see him for a couple weeks. Any thoughts on storage ?
Hi Nicole! I’m glad you loved it. Typically soups can last in the freezer for a few months. I hope it’s hit!
I can’t wait to try this soup! I saw a comment about taking to a potluck. Does this soup sit well on low in a crock pot for a while?
Hi Catherine, I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you do!
This a keeper!
Loved the receipe.Skipped the honey and added some red chilli powder and more pepper. Made the vegan version with coconut milk
Infact the immersion blender made it creamier.
Thank u so much!
You’re welcome, Ganga!
Thanks for the tasty pumpkin soup recipe idea. The coconut milk was just the ingredient needed to make a rich soup without dairy.
I live in Portland, OR area so your blog post caught my attention.
Just made the Pumpkin soup. It is fantastic!. Didn’t have cream used evaporated milk not condensed milk also added chopped carrots and sauteed them with the onions. Can’t wait until supper and bet it will be better tomorrow!! Thanks for the recipe. I pinned it!
This sounds like a tasty recipe. Could you please define the size of can used if using canned pumpkin.
Thank you.
Delicious! This recipe is a keeper. Thank you.
Used 1/2 amount of syrup and double coconut milk.
I made it tonight, we all loved it ❤️ thanks for sharing
Made it for the first time exactly as the recipe said. Delicious!! My new favourite pumpkin soup.
why the addition of honey or maple syrup? I don’t understand as pumpkin is already very sweet.
Hi Malou! I find pumpkins can vary in their flavor. If you feel you don’t need or want it, then you can omit.
I love this recipe! Roasting the pumpkin first gives it such a nice taste. I’m not a huge fan of sweet pumpkin soup, so I leave out the maple syrup but add a bit more cayenne :)
I made this soup for my husband as he loves soup in the colder months especially with some crusty bread. He isn’t fussy and will happily have canned soup buts it’s really hard to find canned vegan pumpkin soup in Australia.
He absolutely loved this, he was silent for a while when the first few mouthfuls went it, and I got worried I’d done something wrong like put too much cloves in, But not long after he said “this is best soup I’ve ever had, in my life!” And had probably half the batch to himself in one sitting!
ThanK you so much for the recipe!
You’re welcome, Juliet! I appreciate you taking the time to review.
Just made your roasted pumpkin soup. It is absolutely perfect!
O>M>G was amazing.we tried both ways with and without malple and found a great balance with…dipped with fresh warmed buttered sour dough we hmmm our way through bowls..different to how we do it here in Australia but our new way…wow…thank you for sharing.
I’ve made this soup a few times now and it’s been amazing each time. I use butternut pumpkin and coconut milk. It’s such an easy recipe to make. Hubby is enjoying it for his work lunches with homemade bread on our chilly Winter days
Best pumpkin soup I’ve ever had. Just such a wonderful balance of flavours, it’s warm, comforting perfection! My husband and I can’t get enough of it. I made a batch thinking we’d have lunches for the week and we finished the lot in a day!
Wonderful! I’m glad you can’t get enough, Ingrid. I appreciate you taking the time.
It’s my pleasure. Thank you so much for providing all these incredible recipes for the public. I’ve put my vegetarian mum on to your recipes and she’s obsessed! Thank you again, it’s a wonderful thing you’re doing here. x
I am no cook but my wife is sick so I decided to try the Pumpkin Soup recipe followed the directions fairly well and then lost track of what I was doing so I started tweeking here and tweeking there and finally produced a pretty good soup for my Lady. We both enjoyed it and had more the following day. Thank You for helping me out!
One of the most delicious pumpkin soup recipe I’ve tried!
And I’ve eaten gallons of it..
Moroccan flavours are delicious blending of spices..
Highly recommend this recipe..
Sure to become a favourite recipe
Looking forward to trying more of your recipes
Love this one! Made a small batch last week to be sure…but, it is great. Making it again tonight with a whole pumpkin…but skipping the pepitas. Too much work for me. LOL… Packed with great nutrition….really do love it!!!!
I’m glad you love it, Sabrina! Thanks for taking the time to review.
Loved all the recipes I have tried out so far! The pumpkin soup was so rich in flavour. I really liked the idea of contrasting the sweetness of the pumpkin with all the spices. I skipped out on maple syrup though to avoid over-sweetening the soup. Thank you so much for being my virtual culinary guide! XOXO
Just made this tonight and it was DELICIOUS! I’m alawys nervous that blended soups will be difficult, but this was super easy. I just used a splash of milk and left out the honey and it was still perfectly sweet and creamy for my taste. Thanks for another the great recipe!
Cool 2nd time done raved over even my asd kid loved it we r in gold coast Australia so you travelled the seas with yr receipe Cheers
Making this tonight with green Korean pumpkins — I’m not eating it until tomorrow, but it smells AMAZING. Thank you for another stellar dish!
I hope it was just as good as it smelled, Greta!
It’s delicious! I couldn’t resist so even though it was pretty late i ate several spoonfuls of it from the pyrex after blending it all. i used chicken stock since veggie stock is hard to get here in Korea, and it gave it a bit too much of a meaty flavor. i have more pumpkin tho so when i remake it i might just use water and add some carrot and/or an apple along with extra herbs to give it a different flavor.
This was so delicious my first pumpkin soup recipe I’ve made and I’m obsessed, I did leave out the cloves just because I didn’t have it on hand
This recipe is great! My go to pumpkin soup. I love how it has a very sweet, comforting taste yet still isn’t sweet enough to become unsavoury. This is definelty a great dish. However if your like me and really like a roasted taste to your pumpkin soup, roast the onion and garlic aswell! What I do is roast half the onion and half the garlic required for the recipe, roughly chopped, with the pumpkin. Just be careful to keep adding olive oil so it doesn’t over dry and burn. Then I remove the roasted onion and garlic and finely chop the remaining half to cook with the pumpkin soup. Try this recipe! You won’t regret it! Also for any Australians out there this works great with Queensland blue pumpkins! I just use a medium large sized one.
This soup is delicious! I never made pumpkin soup before, so I wasn’t sure what to look for in a recipe. I am not certain what kind of pumpkins I used, but they’re green and orange, and much wider than they are tall. The soup smells delicious throughout the process, and it was so easy to make! My partner and my mom and I love it! Dad didn’t like it as much, but he isn’t big on sweet things. My favorite thing about this soup is the balance between the sweetness and the spices.
Would love to try it but not sure how much pumpkin to use….I baked a LOT of pumpkins at once. Could you convert amount of pumpkin to cups for me?
Hi Connie! Sorry, I didn’t measure cups. Some used 4 cups of puree and other diced pumpkin that they said worked well. Let me know!
Yum! So good! I changed mine a tad… I used pumpkin purée and the coconut milk from Trader Joe’s that has ginger and turmeric in it. I also put in half a teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, left out the cloves because I didn’t have any, didn’t have Cayenne pepper but I did put in a bit of paprika and curry powder. I also put in a fourth a teaspoon of ginger powder and a bit of ground up fresh ginger (Bit of a ginger addict).
Didn’t put in a sweetener. Ate with a slice of crusty sourdough bread slathered with goat cheese and topped with arugula. Already looking forward to the leftovers I have in my fridge!
Made it, loved it!!! I’ve made pumpkin soups before but sometimes they lack flavor. This one is everything. Perfect amount of spice, sweet, salty and pumpkiny. I used heavy cream though. Loved it!!
Amazing soup when made with fresh pumpkin in season! I love the cayenne, maple syrup and coconut milk in this recipe – perfect balance of spicy, sweet and creamy.
This is the second time in 3 weeks I’m making this recipe. It is so delicious. Not that it matters, but I used 2% milk instead of heavy cream and it was perfect.
Amazing soup! Just made this after buying pumpkins for the first time on a whim at the grocery store… the flavors were on point. Definitely going to be making this a few more times over the fall season
I used your recipe as a starting point to make an instant pot soup. The result was fantastic! I did make a number of changes: roasted pumpkin with a bit of olive oil spray and a bit of salt; used only 1 T coconut oil, 1/2 onion (130 g), substituted chicken broth (homemade) and Cary’s sugar free syrup. My goal was to not only have a great taste, but meet my dietary requirements (no sugar, low fat, no dairy). Everyone in the family loved it. Thank you!
This soup is amazing. I make a few minor changes. I leave out the cinnamon, I use heavy cream and bone broth instead of vegetable broth; it enhances the flavor. Don’t get me wrong I love cinnamon but I feel it overpowers the flavor. I am planning on serving it for Thanksgiving and I was wondering does this soup freeze well? Do I leave the heavy cream out and add it when I thaw and reheat or make it as usual and then freeze? I was planning on putting it in a food saver bag and freezing it. I also thought about pressure canning it but was not sure if I could add cream to it. Thank you for posting this recipe it is a winner.
Hi! See step 8, it should freeze fine as is. Thank you for taking the time to review, Monique!
Um-a-zing! I paired it up with home made pizza bread, topped with just olives, garlic and cheddar cheese. Thanks for sharing this soup recipe. I have just stumbled across your website and can’t wait to try other recipes too.
Much love from down under-Australia.
Really Really Good. I oven roasted a Butternut Squash for your recipe rather than Pumpkin. Perfect amount of everything.
Just this afternoon I took a large bowl to my neighbor who is home. She sent me a message that it’s even better than the soup at one of our favorite restaurants – Crisp & Green.
This was absolutely delicious, I was a bit skeptical when making It but I trusted the recipe because your other recipes have always been so great. And it turned out fantastic.
hello! you say to use 2 cans of pumpkin puree, but are we talking about the larger cans or the smaller ones?!
Hi Aleisha! The 15oz cans. I hope this helps!
yes that helped thank you! Soup was very yummy! Added more coconut milk because why not!
Hey Kate + Cookie,
This soup is so good! Mine was not as orange as yours in color, but so perfectly good, next time I will make it a little less sweet. Thank you for all your great recipes, your cookbook is one of my preferred ones! Please keep cooking and sharing!
Julie + Dexter
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made it tonight and LOVE it! My boyfriend and I will be freezing some to enjoy this winter. I skipped the maple syrup/honey option. I found the instructions easy to follow (which is greatly appreciated). I will be checking out your other recipes! :) Thanks again!
Well – I thougth 3rd time’s a charm with pumpkin soup – but I’m still unhappy with my results. I think my garlic cloves were too big – I had it in the slow cooker and the garlic taste was/is overpowering. Another epic pumpkin soup fail for me. (You see, what I actually wanted was a pumpkin pie – but I made that last week, and I decided I needed to make something healthy!) If I ever make pumpkin soup again, I think I will halve the recipe so I can experiment more – Or maybe I can come over and try yours one day ;)
I made this today – such a great, easy recipe to follow and it’s absolutely delicious! Thank you!
Made this today.
Added 1/2 tsp Cheyanne Pepper to the mix. Might try 1/3 tsp next time. My wife and I like a slight bite.
Tried the Maple, and though good, I might try honey next time.
Not as creamy as I would like (it makes a big batch). I’ll probably go with 3/4 cup or more heavy cream next time.
I might double the cloves, too…not sure yet.
Overall, 5 of 5 stars! Excellent recipe and one I’ll make again.
Thank you for sharing your variations and preferences, Tom! I appreciate your review.
I am trying to do this soup with leftover pumpkin I roasted and made pumpkin pie. I have around one cup of pumpkin puree left. Is that too little? Can I adapt the recipe for half of its size?
Hi! You will want the exact amount to get this one to turn out. You can try to half as necessary, as long as all the ingredients are cut the same. I hope that makes sense?
I found the clove too strong and would recommend less or none.
I’m sorry to hear that. I appreciate your review and feedback on this one, Linda.
This was delicious- full of flavor! I also put some chopped apple on top! So good!
Thank you for sharing, Tobi! I appreciate it.
I made this with a home grown pumpkin & everyone complained it just tasted of cloves –
Hi Viktro, I’m sorry you didn’t love this one. Are you sure you only added 1/8 tsp?
Perfect Sunday dinner with fresh green salad. Flavor was rich, creamy, & enjoyed by all even our 7 month old! Made it with coconut milk which added just the right touch of sweetness.
This was so good! It was savory, and I upped the honey by probably another two tablespoons to give it a hint of sweetness. I served it with optional toppings: sour cream, toasted pepitas, and crispy bacon bits, and toast topped with goat cheese. It was the perfect meal for a chilly fall evening. :)
Thank you for sharing, Yvonne! I appreciate your review.