Creamy Roasted Pumpkin and Potato Soup: A Cozy Autumn Comfort
- soniasrecipes
Autumn harvest soup
- Difficulty: Easy
- Prep time: 30 min
- Cook time: 40 min
- Serving: 4
- Note plus the soaking time for the mushrooms (20 minutes)
PRESENTATION
Autumn Harvest Soup is a hearty autumn soup built around the contrast between earthy depth and natural sweetness. Farro, savoy cabbage, pumpkin, lentils, dried porcini, and chestnuts come together in a single bowl, pulled into focus by a base of sage, rosemary, and thyme. The dried porcini carry the soup's intensity — a concentrated, woodsy note that develops slowly as they steep into the broth. That depth is exactly what makes the sweetness of the pumpkin and chestnuts land so cleanly. The pairing is the dish's core flavor logic, not an afterthought, and together they make a bowl that feels complete rather than just filling.
It is the kind of first course that earns its place on the table on cooler days. The chestnuts are handled differently from everything else. Rather than simmering with the farro and vegetables, they go in last — crumbled directly into each serving bowl just before the soup is ladled in. The reason is straightforward: a long simmer would flatten the gentle sweetness that makes them worth including in the first place. Added at the end, they hold their flavor and bring a quiet, slightly crumbly texture that sets them apart from the tender vegetables around them. It is a small step, but it shapes the finished bowl in a way that is easy to notice and hard to replicate without it.
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- INGREDIENTS
- Spelt 2 cups (250 g)
- Verza (savoy cabbage) 0.9 lb (400 g)
- Pumpkin 2 cups (500 g)
- Dried lentils 1 ½ cup (300 g)
- Dried mushrooms 1.1 oz (30 g) - porcini
- Shallot 1
- Sage to taste
- Rosemary to taste
- Thyme to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil 1 ½ tbsp (20 g)
- Chestnuts 3.5 oz (100 g)
Preparation
How to prepare Autumn harvest soup
To prepare the autumn harvest soup, start with the chestnuts: score them with a small knife 1, place them in a pot and cover them with cold water 2. Put the pot on the heat and cook them for about 40 minutes. In the meantime, clean the pumpkin by removing the skin 3 and any seeds and internal fibers.
At this point cut the pumpkin first into slices 4 and then into cubes about 3/8 inch 5. Trim the shallot and slice it into rings. Pour the oil into a large pot, add the shallot 6, season with a pinch of salt and let it gently sweat.
Add the pumpkin 7, salt 8 and cook for about 5 minutes. Rinse the lentils under running water and add them to the pot with the pumpkin 9.
Stir 10 and cover with about 4 1/4 cups of hot water (~1 L) 11. Tie the aromatic herbs together and add them to the soup 12. Let cook for about 20–25 minutes.
While the lentils are cooking, soak the dried porcini mushrooms in about 3/4 cup of hot water (approximately 7 fl oz) 13 for about 20 minutes 14. When they have softened, drain them, reserving the soaking liquid, and coarsely chop them with a knife 15.
Add the mushrooms to the lentils 16 together with the spelt 17 and also pour in the porcini soaking liquid 18. Let cook for about 15 minutes.
Clean the savoy cabbage and cut it into strips 19. At this point drain the cooked chestnuts as well 20, let them cool just enough to handle, then peel them and break them into pieces 21.
Add the savoy cabbage to the pot 22 and continue cooking for 5–10 minutes until the spelt, lentils and vegetables are cooked. If the soup becomes too dry you can add a little more hot water. At the end of cooking add a grind of pepper 23, remove the herb bundle, and stir in a chopped mix of fresh herbs 34.
Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and stir 25. Portion the autumn harvest soup into bowls and top with the crumbled chestnuts 26. Serve your soup hot 27.
Storage
Tip
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