Pumpkin Soup is a creamy fall soup with lots of flavor and using canned pumpkin makes this recipe a breeze. This rich soup is full of pumpkin, warm spices, and pureed until smooth and topped with bacon.
Serve it along with some fresh dinner rolls to sop up every drop left in the bowl!
A Fall Favorite
Fall is filled with all things pumpkin for us. Roasting pumpkin, making pumpkin seeds, and of course carving jack-O-lanterns (not to mention a classic homemade pumpkin pie).
- This pumpkin soup recipe is the perfect balance between comfort and festivity!
- Use canned or homemade pumpkin puree to make this recipe quick.
- This recipe is versatile, add in some chili flakes to create a spicy pumpkin soup, or even substitute cream for coconut milk. Endless possibilities.
How To Make Pumpkin Soup
Smoky and salty, bacon is great with the sweetness of pumpkin to create perfectly balanced flavor! Make sure the bacon is crispy enough that you can crumble it, and reserve the fat to cook the onions in.
- Fry bacon and set aside. Cook onions in bacon fat.
- Add broth & seasonings and simmer to blend flavors.
- Stir in pumpkin and cream and simmer.
- Puree soup until smooth with a hand blender.
Blender Tip: If you don’t have a hand blender, puree in a regular blender. Be sure not to seal the blender tightly as the steam needs to escape. Pulse a few times to smooth out the soup before returning it to the pot.
If you use milk a hot soup can potentially cause it to curdle. Heavy cream is the easiest dairy to use in pumpkin soup because the high-fat content keeps it from separating as easily!
Serving this colorful pumpkin soup recipe is as easy as pouring it into bowls and getting creative with the garnish.
Stir in a splash of cream to create a beautiful ripple effect, add some crumbled bacon, parsley, and croutons for a nice crunch!
Because this soup is rich, I usually just serve it with bread or Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits, a quick salad works well too.
More Pumpkin Recipes You’ll Love
- Pumpkin Cupcakes – So fluffy and moist!
- Pumpkin Dump Cake (3 Ingredient) – Quick prep!
- Pumpkin Blondies
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls – Perfect weekend breakfast!
- Easy as Pie Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies – Lunchbox favorite!
Did your family love this Pumpkin Soup recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and a rating below!
Easy Pumpkin Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon chopped
- 1-2 tablespoons butter optional
- 1 medium onion diced fine
- ½ cup carrot shredded
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 2 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- ½ cup heavy cream plus extra for garnish
- 2 tablespoons parsley chopped and divided
- ½ cup croutons optional garnish
Instructions
- In a skillet, cook bacon until slightly crisp. Remove bacon from the skillet but keep the grease. Depending on how much fat renders from the bacon, you may need to add a bit of butter to make 2 tablespoons of fat.
- Add onion to skillet and cook to soften. Once opaque, stir in carrot and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes, then stir in the brown sugar.
- Add the chicken broth, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil then reduce to low heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add pumpkin and cream and heat through. Discard bay leaf and using an immersion blender or hand blender, puree until smooth.
- Stir in 1 tablespoon of parsley and pour into soup bowls. Garnish with cream, croutons and crumbled bacon, and remaining parsley.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Soup
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Do you think adding shredded chicken to the final product would taste good?
I haven’t tried it but I do think it would be great. Let us know how it goes.
Easy and delicious!
I’ve tried several pumpkin recipes, and this one is by far the best one I’ve found. This pumpkin soup is SO delicious!! Even my husband, who hates vegetables soups, likes it. Thanks for sharing Holly!
Glad you enjoyed it Rosa!
Easy peasy and delicious. My family loved this recipe and will definitely make again.
Need a veggie version
Can this be cooked in crockpot?
I have only made this recipe as written John. Let us know if you try it in the slow cooker!
Sounds delicious
Do I remove bay leaf and thyme sprigs before purée?
Yes, both should be removed before pureeing.
I made this with all coconut milk. My husband is dairy sensitive. You got your seasonings perfect! I will definitely be repeating this. Thank you.
This soup is absolutely fantastic. My kids loved it so much. Thanks for sharing!
So happy to hear that Laura! Glad your whole family enjoyed it.
We just made this with a roasted sugar pumpkin and it was AMAZEBALLS!
Oooo, sugar roasted pumpkin! That sounds amazing Kasey!
Assume so, but is the 2 Tablespoons of parsley fresh? Thank you.
You got it Anna!
Could you get away without adding sugar to the recipe? If so, what would you suggest as a good substitute?
Hi Elizabeth, we have only made this recipe as listed but you should be fine to omit the brown sugar if necessary.
This soup is good, though I found the flavor to be rather light. I added ginger, extra salt and pepper, garlic salt, red pepper chili flakes and a bit of lemon juice and then it was fabulous! For some reason, my soup was really thin at first as well so I let it simmer for an additional 10 minutes after pureeing everything. Thank you for the delectable taste of fall!
Those additions sound delicious Ashley! So happy you enjoyed it.
This sounds so delish! But I am on a strict diet…gotta get my cholesterol in check. If I sub yogurt for the cream in the recipe…what result can I expect? Has anyone tried this?
As long as it doesn’t boil/simmer I think it should be fine. It’ll change the flavor slightly and add a bit of tang which I think might be nice with the sweet flavor of pumpkin! Let us know how it goes!
Great flavor and texture made this soup quite delicious! I used one spicy chicken sausage in place of bacon and had to add a little of the butter to sauté the onions. I also used your pumpkin purée recipe to add it fresh. The flavor bits were perfect along with a drizzle of truffle oil on top with cooked sausage bits. Yum – thanks for sharing.
That sounds delicious Sherry! You’re welcome and I’m so glad you love the soup!
So this is delicious, starter, I added a splash of wine to the simmer. Simmered carrots, onions, bacon grease, added butter and a spash of olive oil to recipe. Added white wine to the simmer. Simmered in the bay leaves, added a dash of ginger, cumin, tumeric, on top of the spices you referred to.,, and a lot of red pepper flakes to make it spicy sweet. Followed most of the same recipe and added a dollup of sour cream at serving time. . Delicious, thank you for the recipe.
Sounds delicious Susan, glad you enjoyed it!
A perfect recipe
Thank you Melonie :)
Absolutely delicious! My family loves pumpkin soup and I think this is the best I have made. This will be my go to from now on!
I’m so glad you loved it Sharon!
What a perfect soup for Fall. Thank you for sharing the recipe! I can’t wait to try it!
Enjoy!!
WHAT is the serving size, and how many servings does this delicious recipe make??
This recipe makes 4 servings, each serving is approximately 1 cup.