Recipe: Roasted pumpkin and garlic soup

I made this soup already in September, but it’s still pumpkin season, so I have a hunch it will be making a comeback in the near future.

I love roasted vegetables! Roasting just gives them such an earthy sweetness, it’s absolutely irresistible. Pumpkin is available everywhere for a very reasonable price, and so the thought of a soup made with roasted pumpkin was all too tempting to be ignored. When I thought of roasting also garlic, and of course adding pumpkin’s best friend, sage, I had no choice but to start cooking immediately.

Roasted pumpkin and garlic soup
Serves 4–5

ca 1 kg pumpkin, peeled and cut into even-sized cubes (keep the seeds!)
1 whole garlic, head trimmed off
1 huge onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
200 gr sour cream
1 dl white wine
vegetable stock
sage leaves
salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Preparation: Place the pumpkin cubes, pumpkin seeds and a couple of sage leaves on a baking tray with a generous piece of baking paper, sprinkle some vegetable oil, salt and pepper over them. Wrap the garlic along with a dash of olive oil in tin foil. Shove the pumpkin and garlic in a 180°C oven for about 45 minutes. Roughly turn them over once, so that they roast evenly.
2. Sauté the onions and celery in a pot.
3. Add the white wine and let it simmer on low heat until the alcohol has evaporated.
4. Press the garlic cloves out of their shells and add them to the pot. Throw along also the pumpkin pieces, sage leaves (maybe 5–6, taste your way through as they can be quite strong in taste), vegetable stock and the sour cream.
5. Purée the soup until smooth; if you have the energy and pedantry you can thereafter pass it through a sieve in order to get a really silky consistency.
6. Check the taste, add e.g. salt, a dash of lemon juice, honey or other spices, when needed. Serve with your home-roasted pumpkin seeds and crispy butter-fried sage leaves. Yum-my!

Sigh, again an incredibly dull and ugly food picture.
Photographing inside at dark sure doesn't bring the best out of the looks of my food.