The big orange pumpkins stacked by the grocery store door are bred for one thing: carving. They’re large, thin-walled and light for their size. Inside, the flesh is watery and stringy, and it tastes like not much.
For soup, pie or roasting, you want a different pumpkin.
Buy a sugar pumpkin
Look for small pumpkins, about 2 to 4 lb, labeled sugar pumpkin or pie pumpkin. They have thick, dense flesh that roasts sweet and smooth. A 3 lb pumpkin gives you roughly 3 cups of puree, enough for one pie or a pot of soup.
Kabocha, a squat dark-green Japanese squash, is even better if you see one. It’s drier and sweeter, and it makes the silkiest soup. Butternut squash is the easy stand-in that every store carries; nobody will know.
How to pick a good one
- Heavy for its size. Light pumpkins are dry or hollow inside.
- A dry, firm stem still attached. A missing stem lets rot in.
- No soft spots, especially around the base.
- Dull skin, not shiny. Shine often means it was picked early.
A sugar pumpkin keeps a month or more in a cool, dry spot, so you can buy them early in October and they’ll be fine for Thanksgiving.
How to cook it
Halve it through the stem, scoop out the seeds, and roast the halves cut side down at 400°F for 40 to 50 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance. Scoop the flesh off the skin and blend it smooth. That’s puree, better than canned.
Or skip straight to our roasted pumpkin soup, which roasts it in wedges with onion and garlic.
Don’t throw out the seeds
Rinse them, dry them well, toss with a little oil and salt, and roast at 325°F for 15 to 20 minutes. They’re the right garnish for the soup.