Radioactive Curried Pumpkin Tomato Soup

...or What to Do with Leftover Canned Food Dregs


After making roasted banana pumpkin bread and Moroccan lamb tagine (stay tuned--UPDATE: It's here), I had part of a can of pumpkin, most of a can of tomato, and half a can of coconut milk staring accusingly at me from the kitchen counter. To appease them, I did a quick google which revealed that, lo and behold, I had the makings of a decent soup. The final product was radioactive orange (see above), and quite delicious.

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Radioactive Curried Pumpkin Tomato Soup

In a large saucepan, melt:
1 Tablespoon butter

Saute until very soft, and fragrant:
1 small onion (I used half of a sweet onion)
1 scant Tablespoon curry powder (I love Penzey's Maharajah curry. Though I use this curry pretty often, I'd never noticed that it contains actual saffron threads, which appeared in the finished soup and made it feel very classy and expensive.)

Add:
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk (or whatever's left in the can)

Simmer for 10 minutes, then pour into a blender or food processor. Whiz a few times, until smoothish. Add:
1 can of tomato, any type, and juices (or what's left of one can after making another recipe)
1 can coldpack pumpkin (or... etc.)

Whirl this around until everything seems fairly uniform and liquified. Then dump it back into the saucepan and simmer for approx. 20 more minutes.

All of the online recipes I found said to strain the soup, but that seemed like a lot of work for very little bonus, so I didn't. If the soup seems too thick, thin it with some chicken broth or water. Or, if you are a glutton for punishment, strain it and then email me and tell me if it was worth it.

I found that the soup benefited tremendously from:
Lots of salt and pepper

The seasonings offset the sweetness of the pumpkin and tomato. When I make this again, I'll go heavier on the pumpkin and lighter on the tomato. This version was more like richer, subtler tomato soup than pumpkin soup per se.

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Note: Serve the soup very hot, and ideally in warmed, deep bowls to prevent rapid cooling. My bowl of soup was fabulous for the first dozen slurps, but only OK when it cooled to lukewarm.