Creamy Pumpkin Soup

Smooth and full-flavored, creamy pumpkin soup is one of falls best comfort foods! This pumpkin soup is extra special, made delightfully savory with a rich blue cheese sauce, and then topped with pan-fried pumpkin gnocchi.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to go ahead and jump right to the best part of this story: the blue cheese sauce. I’m afraid I might lose a few of you otherwise, if you had read the intro above and were concerned about the idea of adding blue cheese to your pumpkin soup.

I totally understand. I don’t think I ever would’ve considered combining winter squash and blue cheese in a soup either, if it weren’t for Dorie Greenspan.

Ages ago (it seems), I belonged to an online cooking group that made every single recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s amazing cookbook, Around My French Table. Most were classic, familiar recipes, but every once in a while, the world would slip sideways a little bit, and there’d be a recipe like Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan.

I remember struggling with the concept of this recipe — I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the ingredients. And in flan form, no less. But, I powered through. And was shocked at the result.

The blue cheese mellows out and adds a very welcome earthy-savory note to the slight sweetness of the pumpkin. I’ve never forgotten it.

So when I decided to make a batch of soup from my homemade pumpkin puree, I wanted to make something surprising and extra special. I remembered Dorie and turned to my go-to creamy blue: Cambozola Black Label (pictured above). A blue cheese bechamel was exactly what I needed to transform a humble pumpkin soup into something decadent and company-worthy.

I’m super lucky in that I have a Murray’s Cheese Shop right inside my Kroger, so I have access to top quality cheeses, every day. Hopefully, you’re similarly blessed with cheese access, but you can buy Cambozola Black Label at Amazon if you’re interested in giving it a try. Or, use your favorite soft blue cheese.

If you’re new to creamy sauces and are worried about making the blue cheese bechamel, don’t be! It only takes a few minutes, and it’s practically fool-proof. You’ll whisk up this magic sauce while the pumpkin soup simmers, and you can take your time and enjoy the cool alchemy that turns four simple ingredients into a dreamy pool of cheesy goodness.

Best of all, this special-occasion soup won’t have you hovering over the stove for hours. The pumpkin soup base is probably the easiest soup you’ll ever make: saute up the aromatics and spices, add the pumpkin puree and broth, and simmer away.

Blend in the creamy blue cheese bechamel, and you’re ready to serve!

About the same time that I was dreaming up this soup, I made a big batch of homemade pumpkin gnocchi. As I finished pan-frying them for a quick dinner, I had a {ding!} moment: pumpkin gnocchi in pumpkin soup! They’re even the same color, lol.

These crispy-tender pillows make a unique and tasty topping for this creamy pumpkin soup, and you can make the gnocchi ahead of time and freeze them. But of course, if you’re pressed for time, you can certainly use prepared gnocchi instead.

But if you’re making creamy pumpkin soup for a special celebration, it’s a nice touch to have the matchy-matchy pumpkin gnocchi to top it all off.

Far from being a plain-jane winter squash soup, this creamy pumpkin soup with blue cheese sauce would be a delightful appetizer soup for your next holiday dinner. But it’s also a pretty nifty pour-it-into-a-mug-and-eat-it-in-front-of-the-TV soup. Which is how I finished off this batch. 😉

Karen xo

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Gnocchi

Smooth and full-flavored, creamy pumpkin soup is a lovely surprise of the creamy savoriness created by the blue cheese sauce. This soup is easy to make, but company-worthy. Serve it as an appetizer soup for your next celebration dinner.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: pumpkin soup

Servings: 4

Calories: 410kcal

Author: Karen Gibson

Ingredients

for the soup

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 small/medium onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 15 ounce can pumpkin puree not pie filling
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth low sodium

for the blue cheese sauce

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 cup half and half
• 3 ounces soft gorgonzola cheese (such as Cambozola Black Label, cubed)

for the gnocchi

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 16 ounces prepared gnocchi or 1 pumpkin gnocchi recipe (see notes)
• 6 sage leaves, thinly sliced

Instructions

for the soup

• Heat the oil and butter in a 4 to 5 quart Dutch oven or stock pot over medium, until shimmering. Add the onions, and saute until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic, salt, and nutmeg and stir until fragrant (just 30 seconds or so).
• Spoon in the pumpkin puree, and combine thoroughly with the onion mixture.
• Tip in the broth and stir to create a smooth base. Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce heat to low while you make the blue cheese sauce.

for the blue cheese sauce

• Heat butter in a medium sauce pot over medium heat, until melted. Stir in the flour to form a thick paste.
• Add a 1/4 cup of the half and half and stir well. It will be lump at first, but will smooth out a bit. Adding the remaining half and half in 1/4-cup increments, and keep stirring, until the bechamel is thick enough to drip slowly from a spoon.
• Add the blue cheese cubes at all once, and stir until melted (this could take a few minutes).

prepare the gnocchi

• Follow the package directions to boil the gnocchi. If you're using my pumpkin gnocchi recipe: bring a pot of water to boil, drop in the gnocchi, and cook for 3 minutes. They should plump up and float.
• To pan-fry the gnocchi: heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium until melted. Add the gnocchi, and saute until golden brown (7-8 minutes).

finish the soup

• Stir the blue cheese sauce into the pumpkin soup. Use an immersion blender to completely smooth out the soup (you can also use a standard blender; you'll need to work in batches).
• Ladle the soup in bowls, and top each serving with a generous amount of gnocchi. Garnish with fried sage, if desired.

Notes

If you'd like to make your own homemade gnocchi, try my pumpkin gnocchi recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 410kcal

Nutritional information, if shown, is provided as a courtesy only, and is not to be taken as medical information or advice. The nutritional values of your preparation of this recipe are impacted by several factors, including, but not limited to, the ingredient brands you use, any substitutions or measurement changes you make, and measuring accuracy.

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