Gourmet spiced pumpkin velouté, a comfort food for gourmets !
About this recipe
Here's a great recipe if you like pumpkins ! I make this recipe every October, and find this to be the best pumpkin velouté !
Although pumpkin veloutés were served in Europe a long time ago, they are not so common anymore. I discovered pumpkin soups when I moved to California: Americans love their pumpkins every Fall, and cook them for soups but also in desserts (pumpkin pies)
The first recipes I tried were a bit surprising to me, but year after year, I discovered ingredients to make this velouté tastier
And one day, I was invited to eat in Las Vegas, at Guy Savoy's restaurant, a top French restaurant. The first dish of the (long) menu was a Truffle and Herbs Pumpkin Soup, which I found incredibly tasty
And that's how how I got inspired to perfect this recipe (which is not Guy Savoy's version !). The spices, the herb, the truffle oil makes this dish really delicious
A great dish if you invite gourmet people over ! And if it's just for yourself, you may skip a few steps like the mushrooms and truffle oil.
Soups, Veloutés
A few definitions:
A Soup
● Soups, from Latin suppa, were originally a stock made of vegetables and meat, with big chunks in a flavored water. To make it more filling, ancients would add a piece of bread into it
A Mouliné
● is a soup that has been blended and strained
A Potage
● is a stock cooked with vegetables, served in a small bowl at the beginning of a meal
A Velouté
● is a soup, blended and strained, and thickened with corn starch or another thickener
A "Cream of"
● is a velouté with a heavy cream such as "crème fraîche"
A Consommé
● is a stock that has been reduced, and "cleared" (with the egg whites technique)
A Bisque
● is a velouté, made with fish and/or shellfish
Bon appétit ! By the way, this is a dish that I find tastier the next day, as the flavors continue to develop
Store this velouté in the fridge in an airtight container