Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup

Yes, I like soup. And right now, with all the autumn weather and veggies, I am kinda obsessed. This soup is my absolute new favorite. Cory said it might even be the best soup I have ever made. Now, if I was in the US and had Cotija cheese and corn tortilla strips to garnish this with, it would be even better. For now, the Spicy pumpkin seeds from the previous post were perfect.

Spicy Black Bean & Pumpkin Soup
2 cups cooked and pureed pumpkin
1 15 oz can black beans (one of the precious few I brought from the US)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, diced
Cumin
Cayenne Pepper
This Seasoning (a mexican chili and lime seasoning)
Salt
Pepper
3 cups vegetable broth
pinch ground ginger
couple pinches ground coriander
1 tsp white wine vinegar

In a stock pot or cast-iron soup pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions begin to carmelize. Season with a bit of salt and pepper and the white wine vinegar.

Add pumpkin puree and all the seasoning. Cook over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occaisionaly.

Meanwhile, boil the can of beans (no need to drain) in the vegetable broth for about 10 minutes.

Add beans and broth to the pumpkin. Stir and combine then cover and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender and serve hot.

Like I said, crumbled Cotija cheese and corn tortillas would be money with this soup.

And can I point out that this soup is like, ridiculously good for you? Its practically fat free and Pumpkin and Black Beans are total super foods - full of beta carotene and other antioxidents, dietary fiber, protein, iron...

Pepitas

I was cooking some more pumpkin today to put in the freezer and decided to make some of this spicy little seeds that have been haunting my dreams. I have seen these all over the internet lately - and Cory always talks about spicy pumpkin seeds he would get in LA. All I know is, they are super duper addictive! All amounts below are approximate, I just kind of eye-balled it.

Pepitas (Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds)
2 cups pumpkin seeds
2 tbs olive oil
2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
3 tsp Chili Powder with lime (or fresh lime, I didn't have any and I love this seasoning - the lime is strong)
Ground Sea Salt

Lay them all out on a cookie sheet and cook at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 10 to 20 minutes, or until nice and crispy (just taste a few to know).

I wish my pumpkin had more seeds!!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

No one ever called me a baker. Really, its not my thing. But lately - mostly ever since I saw these cookies on this sweet cooking blog - Everybody Likes Sandwiches - I have been having the urge to bake. I had big plans for baking, and I am sure I will still make some of the yummy cakes and pies and cookies I have been dreaming about. But now I remember why I don't really bake - cause I ain't so good at it and it makes a massively huge mess. Well, throw in the fact that I don't know what any of the ingredients are called here, and can't seem to find most of them, and you have these cookies.

Don't get me wrong, taste wise, these were everything I ever dreamed of. But they don't look pretty. Also, chocolate chips are nowhere to be found in Berlin so I got some yummy looking baking chocolate and cut it up. I had little chunks and big chunks and flakes - and so these ended up being more chocolate-swirly-chunky with a bit of pumpkin and oatmeal. The chocolate was really creamy and milky and rich, and I never thought I would say this, but it may have been too much chocolate. Shocking, I know.

Don't worry, I am making these again. Oh yes, I will conquer. And in the meantime, like I said, they still taste absolutely deliciously wonderful.


2 c flour
1 c quick or old-fashioned oats
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c (2 sticks) butter
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla (I used something called vanilla sugar cause I could not find vanilla extract here. It has to exist somewhere though...)
1 c cooked and pureed pumpkin
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used probably almost 2 cups of milk chocolate chunks)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Set aside.
3. Cream butter. Gradually add both sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. (Can I just say right here that when you don't have a nifty stand mixer this part SUCKS)(I would like a Kitchen aid mixer for christmas. That is all.)
4. Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, leaving room for cookies to spread (and BOY do they spread). Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops of cookies are dry and spring back when touched lightly. Remove from baking sheet and cool on racks.

Why I love Fall - Pumpkin

Yes, I love all things pumpkin flavored. Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Pumpkin bread, Pumpkin pie, Pumpkin cake, Pumpkin cookies, Pumpkin Soup...I even like roasted pumpkin seeds.

I saw lots of amazing pumpkins at the Farmers Market this past Saturday and I was a little afraid there wouldn't be anymore around closer to Thanksgiving. And we might not have any of the rest of the meal, but we WILL have pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. Not to mention I want to try making this Pumpkin-Oatmeal-Chocolate chip cookie recipe. So, I decided to try and preserve some pumpkin to get me through the rest of the season. I did some reading and decided to go with freezing . It was ridiculously easy, which is kinda my style.

I started with 1/2 of a monster of a pumpkin - I am guessing it weighed about 8 or 9 pounds (the half, not the whole). The pumpkin needs to be cooked and pureed - I decided to 'roast' in the oven. I scooped out the guts, split the half into three pieces, brushed liberally with vegetable oil and a bit of salt, and placed on a baking sheet.

Turns out that baking sheet (read MY ONE AND ONLY baking sheet) does not fit in my tiny little European oven. So I moved them onto my pizza stone which worked out just fine. Until I realized they were touching the top of the oven and I had to move the rack down to like the bottom one. Finally I got them to fit in the oven. I baked at 200C (about 400 F) for roughly two hours. It was nice and soft and the peel came of easily.

I scooped out the flesh into a bowl. Here's where I got a little creative. I have no idea if this is going to affect my pumpkin puree or not - but I drained off quite a bit of liquid. It was just swimming in it. There was still quite a bit of liquid in the puree when I was done - but it just seemed like too much at first.

Then I scooped the puree into containers for freezing - I got 2 2-cup containers and 2 1-cup containers for a total of 6 cups of pumpkin puree. Thats enough for a lot of baking - one recipe of cookies takes 1 cup of puree.

I let the puree cool down to room temperature then stuck them in my freezer. Now I have handy fresh pumpkin anytime I want to do some baking. Yay!