Baked Pumpkin Gruyere Soup

My husband and I are trying to lose weight.   Can you tell?  Honestly, this soup is a testament to the fact that you can eat anything.  Anything.  In moderation.  

I would not call this soup "diet friendly".  By no stretch of the imagination.   You start by filling out a hallowed out pumpkin with sliced gruyere cheese.  Then pouring heavy cream over the top.  Heavy cream.  There is nothing low fat about this soup.  Well, except the pumpkin, I suppose.

I've had this soup on my radar for several years.  I was waiting for a holiday when I could serve it to people in their own individual pumpkins.  How cute, right?  Start off with a bang.  But then, just post Halloween, pumpkins were on sale, so I grabbed a couple and the other simple (but not low-fat) ingredients I needed.    I was going to make it the next day.  That night, we decided it was time to start watching what we eat.

Which is exactly what we did.  We watched what we ate.  Instead of eating an entire portion, we ate half. Actually, I ate 1/4 of mine because I really couldn't eat any more.  As you can imagine, it's very rich.  I made a few adjustments.  I did substitute half of the cream for whole milk.  For 1/4 of my soup, a slice of sourdough and a glass of red wine, I clocked in at 329 calories.    How do I know that?  I used a recipe calculator to figure out how many calories were in one pumpkin and quartered it.

I've waited a very long time to have this soup.  It met my expectations.  Rich and creamy with the earthiness of the pumpkin.  It would probably have been better if I'd used nothing but heavy cream, but that is a fat and calorie content I don't even want to think about!

I made one other change to the recipe.  Originally it said just to stir it when it was finished baking and pull in the pumpkin from the sides of the walls.  That wasn't enough for me.  I really like the pumpkin to have a smooth texture.  So I tossed mine into the blender and evened it out.  An immersion blender would have come in handy.

If you are looking to wow your guest at your Thanksgiving table, this is a soup worth considering.  Just save room for turkey!

Baked Pumpkin Gruyere Soup
adapted from Apple Pie, Patis, & Pate

one small pie pumpkin (about 2 pounds)
1 pound Gruyere cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
fresh grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Slice the top of the pumpkin off at the stem, much like you would if carving a jack o'lantern.  Scoop out the seeds and pump.   Fill the cleaned pumpkin with cheese, milk, cream, butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  It should be about 2/3 full.

replace the pumpkin top and bake for about 45 minutes to 1.5 hour - mine took 1.5 hours - until soft, tender and the pumpkin flesh is spoonable.  Check by poking the lid to avoid your lovely soup escaping your nature-made soup tureen.

Remove from oven and scoop the pumpkin flesh with the cream and cheese and combine.   Run through a blender, if desired.  Serve hot.