Autumn Celebration Menu: Pumpkin-Pear Soup

These days, I come to see many bloggers devoting a few posts to the beauty of Autumn and I decided not to be an exclusion, to a certain extent, either. Well, I just have to confess that since a while the pure Summer girl in me has finally learnt to see flavour in every season and almost every weather! We are now having a really gorgeous autumn: bright tints of green and yellow, deep reds and orange with generously scattered flashes of gold are in abundance everywhere! The softness of daylight, spectacular sky views, and even strong wind /warm clothes obligatory!/ and crispy air in the early mornings - I feel amazed in every way by these countless, fabulous gifts of Nature!

 

Such feast of colors and lower air temperatures inspired me to make some autumn speciality. And what can be more autumn vegetable berry, than a pumpkin!? And here's  a recipe I've felt attracted by the most - an interestng combinaton of pumpkin and pears with dor blue cheese! While reading the recipe of this soup, I was doubting a bit if it would actually be tasty, but it came out to be a really delicious fall comforting dish - rich and creamy, in the joyful colours of autumn, exactly the way I foretasted it!

Ingredients:

• 2 middle-sized pumpkins
• 2 ripe pears
• 1 big onion
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 800 ml of chicken stock
• blue cheese cut into slices
• 1/2 tsp of freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp salt (I prefer sea salt)

Method of cooking:

1. Wash the pumpkins. Cut off a round pumpkin's cap, deseed forming it tureen-like in shape, and rub the pumpkin's skin down with olive oil.
2. Bake in the oven till the pulp becomes slightly softer, then take it out and put aside.
3. Peel and deseed the other pumpkin. Cut into big chunks.
4. Put bits of pears, pumpkin chunks and a chopped onion into a fireproof deep stewing pan and bake in the oven for 40-45min, stirring periodically. Cook pumpkin and pears until soft.
5. Pour chicken stock into the pan and heat for a while. Then put the mixture into  blender to make soup-puree. Spice with salt and pepper.
6. Bake for a few minutes the tureen-pumpkin to make it warm and pour into it the puree soup. Serve each portion hot, decorated with crumbled cheese. 

It may sound difficult but it actually isn't, and I'm sure you will defenitely like this soup if you decide to give it a try!