The air smells like knowledge and sweaters and Woody Guthrie, for some reason.

Inspired by a recent dinner party that prominently featured the best pumpkin pie I think I’ve ever tasted, I set myself the task of making a pumpkin pie-inspired soup so I could have pumpkin pie for dinner every night without suffering the consequences of eating too much dessert. Last week squash were the most prominent feature of the local farmstand (you know it’s almost Halloween when…) so I used a butternut squash as the base of this soup. But you could definitely use pumpkin if you’ve got one lying around. I’m pretty sure this soup will be tasty no matter what. Just as long as whatever you use doesn’t come out of a can.

Pumpkin Pie Soup

You’ll need…
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 onions, sliced
2 cans chicken or vegetable stock
Butter & olive oil
1 cup of red wine (best to just use the dregs from that bottle you haven’t finished because you’ve been writing midterm papers and it makes you too sleepy)
2 T honey
1/4 cup walnuts
1 cup milk or cream
Salt & pepper
Cumin
Allspice
Cinnamon
Nutmeg (all to taste – start with about a half teaspoon each)

Drizzle the squash pieces with olive oil and bake for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile saute the onions in butter and oil till translucent.

Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer for about 40 minutes.

Blend thoroughly (easiest way to do this is an immersion blender but any blender or food processor works), return to pot, and add the milk or cream. Adjust the spices according to just how pumpkin-pie-like you want your soup to be. Note: the biggest thing is not to be shy about adding salt. The onions, squash, spices and honey all make for a pretty sweet soup so it needs a fair amount of salt to bring out the flavor. You could try keeping it on the sweet side and serve it as a creative dessert as well.