Spiced Pumpkin Bisque

Kickoff Halloween evening in a delicious and healthy way with this Spiced Pumpkin Bisque with the spooky, spider web topping.  It’s warm and comforting, with all the flavors of Fall.

Bowl of Spiced Pumpkin Bisque garnished with a creme fraische spider web and fresh parsley.

Why not host a trick-or-treat kickoff dinner and include this bisque for the adults and Scary Halloween Spider Pizza, Mummy Hot Dogs, or Bones And Blood (breadsticks and sauce) for the kids. Then whip up a pitcher of Caramel Apple Cider Cocktails to help the adults deal with the kid’s sugar high later on!

Spiced Pumpkin Bisque

Have you ever wondered what exactly is a bisque?  Well, bisque and soup are essentially the same things, but bisque is made using a French technique that uses cream as a base.  

In a classical recipe, the bisque would have some type of seafood in it, but modern recipes utilize a bisque technique with vegetables, meat, or poultry as well.

For this Spiced Pumpkin Bisque, pumpkin puree is combined with warm spices such as curry, cinnamon, cumin, and nutmeg and pureed with half and half until smooth and silky.  It makes for a perfect soup to serve during the Autumn season, Halloween, and even Thanksgiving.

Bowl of Spiced Pumpkin Bisque garnished with a creme fraische spider web and fresh parsley.

Ingredients Needed

  • Butter
  • Onion, carrot, celery, apple, and garlic
  • Curry powder, nutmeg, cayenne, cinnamon, cumin, and salt
  • Chicken broth
  • Canned pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling, which is full of sugar
  • Half and half
  • Creme fraiche or sour cream as a garnish
  • Parsley for garnish

How To Make This Recipe

  1. Saute the onions, carrot, celery, and apple in the butter until tender and just beginning to caramelize.
  2. Add in the garlic, curry powder, nutmeg, cayenne, cinnamon, cumin, and salt, and allow the spices to toast.
  3. Pour in the broth and allow everything to simmer until tender.
  4. Whisk in the pumpkin and half and half.
  5. Use an emersion blender to puree all of the ingredients together.
  6. Ladle the soup into bowls.
  7. Whisk together the creme fraiche and half and half together, then spoon into a ziptop bag and make concentric circles in each bowl.  Drag a toothpick through the circles, making a spider web design in the soup.
  8. Enjoy!

Bowl of Spiced Pumpkin Bisque garnished with a creme fraische spider web and fresh parsley.

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Spiced Pumpkin Bisque

Kickoff Halloween evening in a delicious and healthy way with this Spiced Pumpkin Bisque with the spooky, spider web topping.  It’s warm and comforting, with all the flavors of Fall.

  • Author: Millie Brinkley
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 60 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Starters - Soups
  • Method: Simmer
  • Cuisine: French

Ingredients

Scale

¼ cup butter

1 large sweet onion, chopped

3 medium carrots, shredded

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 medium apple, peeled, cored, and shredded

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 ½ teaspoons curry powder

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon salt

4 cups chicken broth

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin (do not use pumpkin pie mix)

1 cup half-and-half

1 cup creme fraiche – thinned with half and half until you reach a pourable consistency

Chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

In a Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter.

Add the onions, carrots, celery, and apple. Saute until the onions begin to caramelize – about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle in the curry powder, nutmeg, cayenne, cinnamon, cumin, and salt.  Stir into the vegetable mixture and allow the spices to ‘’bloom’.  Stir and cook for another 5 minutes or until the spices become very fragrant.

Whisk in the chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Stir in the pumpkin and half-and-half.  Continue to cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes to bring the soup back to a simmer.  Don’t allow the soup to boil.

Remove the pot from the heat.

Carefully use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth and silky.

Return the pot to the stove and warm over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the soup is hot.

To serve:  Ladle the soup into soup bowls.

In a small bowl, add the creme fraiche.  Stir in enough half and half until a pourable consistency is reached.  Spoon the mixture into a small zip-top bag.  Cut off a tiny corner and pipe concentric circles on top of the soup.

Use a toothpick to drag a line through the circles, starting from the outer circle and moving towards the center to create a spider web design.

Sprinkle with parsley.  Serve immediately.

Keywords: spiced pumpkin bisque, soup recipes, pumpkin recipes, recipes for Fall, Halloween recipes, creamy soup recipes