The Best Chunky Pumpkin Soup: Dairy and Gluten Free

When you need a one-pot autumn or winter soup dinner AND you want it to be good enough to impress guests, then look no further, friends! This chunky pumpkin soup is THE BEST pumpkin soup I’ve ever tasted. It’s rich and creamy (but not overpoweringly coconut-y). And it’s full of flavor (but isn’t spicy). It’s loaded with veggies AND fruit in it (all the micronutrients!). AND it’s pretty (orange, green, red, oh my!).

This chunky pumpkin soup is make-ahead-and-freeze friendly, or do-the-chop-work-early friendly. And it’s delicious. I mean, like, all three kids ALWAYS want seconds when I make it, and no timers have to be set to get through the meal!

Some friends of ours introduced us to it last year. And as soon as we started eating it, I told my friend Ellie, “I NEED the recipe for this!” She sent me the list of ingredients later, and I extrapolated from there! I’ve adjusted the amounts of certain ingredients to make it the texture my family seems to prefer (stew-y and full of chunky mouthfuls), and it’s grown a bit in the process. So one batch makes two meals for my family, plus a few extra servings for lunches.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Chunky Pumpkin Soup – A Regular Winter Rotation Recipe

This soup has been showing up at least twice per month in our house all autumn and winter. I’ll probably continue using it through the spring. It might be a tougher sell in the summer, but honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the kids gobble it up even in the heat!

One of the things I love about this chunky and creamy pumpkin soup is that it uses fresh autumn and winter produce. I love cooking seasonally, and this pot is full of all the autumn and winter seasonal produce. And when the produce is in season, that helps with the cost, too!

What It’s Made Of

The list of ingredients for this chunky pumpkin soup is pretty basic. They include:

• sausage (Italian, if you can find it)
• mushrooms
• onions
• potatoes
• sweet potatoes (kumara)
• apples
• garlic
• pumpkin (pureed)
• greens (kale or spinach)
• veggie or chicken broth
• coconut milk
• Italian seasoning
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Salt and Pepper

And for some optional extras (not necessary, but REALLY nice if you add them!)

• pumpkin or butternut squash, diced
• leeks, chopped
• fresh parsley, chopped

I usually have to intentionally get mushrooms and sausage on my grocery list with this meal in mind, but otherwise, the ingredients are things I usually have on hand.

How to Make Your Own Pureed Pumpkin

Here in New Zealand, it’s not typical to find canned pumpkin on the shelves of my usual grocery store. I suppose, if I searched hard enough, I might be able to find it elsewhere, but I don’t usually have time for that! So, I make my own. It’s honestly not that hard, and since I love all things pumpkin, it’s totally worth it for me!

I typically purchase a crown pumpkin (or two, if they’re on sale!), and bust out my crock pot to make a batch of pureed pumpkin to freeze.

The hardest part about dealing with the pumpkin is getting it open. I usually use one of my friends’ tricks, which is to take it outside and drop it on the ground. Ideally, on concrete (and someplace you can hose it off or sweep it off, because sometimes you end up with seeds everywhere). The drop usually at least cracks the pumpkin, and then you’re ready to finish opening it.

I scoop out the seeds (save or discard). Then I chop the pumpkin into pieces roughly the size of my hand and rinse them (to make sure no rocks from the drop outside are still there!). And then I layer as many of those chunks into the crock pot as I can. Add a cup of water, and let them cook 8 hours on low. No need to remove the skin.

Once they’re cooked, let them cool a bit. From there, it’s really easy to scoop the pumpkin flesh out of the skin, or just pull the skin off with your fingers. I drop the cooked pumpkin flesh into the blender, add 1/2 cup of water, and blend away.

When the pumpkin is smooth, I freeze it into one cup or two cup baggies. I’ll use it to make this chunky pumpkin soup or use it for pumpkin muffins or pumpkin sheet pan pancakes.

Do-Ahead Chunky Pumpkin Soup Prep

For this recipe, I like to do several things ahead of time.

When I get home from the grocery store after my big monthly grocery shop, I try to rinse all my produce and then do some prep work.

For this meal, I rinse the mushrooms, and then chop them and bag them into a zippy bag. I’ll freeze it for when I’m ready to use it in the soup.

I also chop my leeks and bag them and freeze them. And I do the same thing with the onions. Lastly, I chop my sweet potato (kumara), and bag and freeze that.

When I make the pumpkin puree, if I have any pumpkin chunks that won’t fit in the crock pot to cook, I’ll dice them into cubes and freeze them as well to add to this meal.

Getting some of the chopping finished in advance makes the assembly process just a tad bit faster for this meal.

If You Can’t Find Italian Sausage…

Once again, here in New Zealand, finding a package of “Italian flavored sausage” at my local grocery store isn’t usually possible. So I buy plain pork sausage and, when I cook it, I season it with Italian herbs.

I include some garlic powder (1-2 tsps), some onion powder (1-2 tsps), some parsley (1-2 tsps) and a little oregano and thyme. In addition, I like to add some paprika (smoked or sweet) and salt and pepper.

How to Serve Chunky Pumpkin Soup

I often JUST serve this soup for our family for dinner. It has all the macros in it – protein, carbohydrates, and fats. And it is also loaded with produce (mushrooms, onions, apples, pumpkins, leeks, spinach or kale, garlic…). So I don’t feel like I need to serve it with salad. Since we usually have fresh sourdough bread around, usually I have a slice of that for each person.

However, if you wanted to make this a “company” meal, I think it would be nice with a green salad (as fancy or low-key as you want to make it!). You could also add some feta cheese and fresh chopped parsley for garnishing options. And any kind of flaky biscuit or crusty bread would be delicious! We also enjoy drinking our homemade orange-mango kombucha with it – but we like drinking kombucha with everything!

Let me know if you made this soup and what you thought of it! I’ve included it in my [LINK coming soon!] one month meal plan for winter, so if you like this recipe, feel free to check out that meal plan!