Sweet 'n Simple Pumpkin Soup

I don't have much to say about this dish, mostly because I just ate a big bowl of it alongside a genuinely delightful Badass Biker Chick(pea) Burger and a cup of strawberries in applesauce -- pretty much the perfect meal to eat after slogging home on a bike in 98* weather.  I'm sure there's a long-winded story in my brain somewhere about how I had pumpkin soup for the first time while studying abroad to Japan fifteen years ago, and an observation that I've been meaning to learn to make pumpkin soup for fifteen-odd years, but that's honestly not all that interesting and the soup's so easy and quick that you can make it faster than I can bore you with my stories.

Credit where credit is due:  It's almost exactly copied from The Minimalist Baker's site, but she a) makes her pumpkin puree from scratch, which is way more effort than I'm going to put into a side-dish and b) goes on and on and ON forever about this soup with picture after picture after picture ... just give me the damn recipe already, yeah?  I'm hungry.

Oh, and hey -- this thing's vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut free, and ... still manages to taste amazing?  That's an accomplishment, right there.  True story.

Sweet 'n Simple Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients
1 small onion, fine-diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 small cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth (this is 2 cups water + 2 tsp veggie bouillon, for me)
15 oz pure pack pumpkin puree
1 cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper


Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook for a minute or two.
3. Add garlic and cook for a minute or two, until the onion's started to go translucent and the garlic smells good.
4. Add the vegetable broth and pumpkin puree, stirring until it's all playing nice together.
5. Add the coconut milk and maple syrup, stirring to get everything smooth.
6. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and black pepper.
7. Let it cook until it starts to bubble.

At this point, it's done and can be served.  If you want it smoother, you can stick an immersion blender in it and blend up the onion and garlic.  That's really nice, but not entirely necessary.

It's a sweet soup, but not cloyingly so; goes best with a side dish that's salty/bitter to offset the sweet.  I'm excited to try it with a grilled cheese made with sharp cheddar and sourdough bread.  Mmm.