Useful Equipment for Making Soup and Producing Purees

Food Mill: A hand-cranked food mill purees soup by forcing ingredients through a preforated round disk to remove fibers, skins and seeds from vegetables. Most mills come with both medium and fine disks offering the cook a choice of coarser or smoother purees.

Food Processor: A food processor purees soups almost instantaneously. First, fit the processor with a metal blade. Ladle small batched of the cooked product and a bit of the liquid into the food processors bowl. Be careful not to over fill, fill to just about half way. Cover and pulse the machine several times, then process until the puree to desired consistency. When using a food processor, straining may be necessary to remove fibers, skins and seeds. Remove them by pouring contents into a sieve over large bowl or you may use a stainless steel wire mesh strainer.

Handheld blender ("Stick Blender"/"Immersion blender") Hand held blenders also called immersion blenders have a blade that can lowered directly into a pot of soup, blending large amounts of soup at one time without having to switch the contents from pot to a separate bowl. I prefer using an immersion blender for ease of use, less dishes to clean and for it's ability to easily achieve a smooth silky texture in soups in the least amount of time and with little effort. Immersion blenders also tend to incorporate air into the soup, resulting in a silky foamy texture.

Standing blender: Blenders make pureeing soups fast and easy, they can handle more liquid than food processors and usually produce a better puree than food processors. When using a blender, work in small batched and never fill blender more than half way to prevent overflow.

Farmer's Market Roasted Pumpkin and Green Apple Soup

(for RedlandsDailyFacts.com food column article)

Farmer’s Market Roasted Pumpkin and Green Apple Soup

Note: There are several ways to prepare this recipe. Originally, I made this recipe using heavy cream and bacon! It was delicious, but when cooking for my health conscious mother and sister, I decided to make this delicious soup a bit more healthy to eat. I've listed a few substitutions for various ways to prepare.



3lbs Roasted Pie Pumpkin
1.5 tbsp Olive Oil
4 oz Turkey Bacon (turkey bacon is THE substitute for pork bacon!)
½C Onion, Diced
2 Granny Smith Apples (or other tart green apple), peeled, cored, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
12 oz Soft (silken) Tofu (sub with 8oz heavy cream or 8 oz yogurt)
4C Chicken Broth (or sub with veg broth)
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp Sage (dried or chopped fresh)
1C Apple Cider
¾ tsp Pepper
½ tsp Salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut pie pumpkins in half, scoop out seeds and loose ‘strings’. Place on baking sheet, cut side down, with thin layer of water covering bottom of baking sheet. Bake 30-45 minutes at 300F. When done, pumpkins should be dark brown to slightly black around edges on skin. Texture of pumpkin flesh should be moist, separating easily from skin. Scoop out filling with large spoon and put aside in separate container.

In pan (or dutch oven) on stove top, sautee ½ C diced onions, diced apples, 1.5 tsp olive oil and 4 oz diced turkey bacon. Sautee all ingredients until soft and translucent. Add minced garlic, sautee additional minute. Add roasted pumpkin, 1tsp sage, 1 bay leaf, 1 C apple cider, 4 C chicken broth. First bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for approx 30 min. Place ½ contents from stove top in blender. (or use a stick blender and blend on stove top). Add half tofu or cream. Put blended contents aside, then blend second half of stove top ingredients. Add second half of tofu or cream to blender. (Hint: Never fill a blender more than half way, always blend first on slow speed and hold lid on top of container!) After second round of cooked ingredients are blended and all tofu is added, return soup to stove top pot. Reheat soup and serve hot. Garnish with chopped chives or spoonful of cream. Enjoy!