Black Walnut Pumpkin Soup

I'm revisiting another recipe for the Wild Things Round Up.  If you've got a black walnut recipe that you'd like to share, please send it to wildthingsroundup@gmail.com before the end of the month!

----------------------------

Remember the little Halloween adventure I had to harvest black walnuts? Well, I only ended up with a five gallon bucket full of them. And after being husked and picked, that doesn't leave a whole lot of black walnut meat to work with. But it's ok, because black walnuts are a very flavorful nut and a little goes a long way.

But still, with so little black walnut meat on hand, they will be doled out as a treat. This week, I made my first recipe with them
- a pumpkin and black walnut soup - which packs a great big black walnut flavor punch using very few nuts. It's one of those recipes where the sum is greater than the parts, because with only a few ingredients, you can make a wildly luxurious and rich soup perfect to cozy up with on a cold winter night, or to serve for the finest occasion. Black walnut and pumpkin soup is one of my all-time favorites.

I used leftover roasted and mashed pumpkin for this recipe (because I took a two quart casserole of pumpkin to a dinner party and was the only person that ate any!), which made for a quick cook. But if you have fresh, just simmer peeled cubes of pumpkin in the soup. Also, any winter squash or even sweet potatoes will work in this recipe.

Start by sweating a small diced onion and 1/4 - 1/3 c. of chopped black walnuts in butter over low heat. When the onions have become translucent, add in 2-3 cups of mashed pumpkin, then top off with water* to make a soup consistency. Simmer over medium heat for ten minutes to let the flavors combine. Puree the soup with a blender, finish with some heavy cream, and add salt and pepper to taste.

*I really prefer to use water over stock in black walnut pumpkin soup because I feel that stock muddies the flavor.

I'm sharing this recipe with Pennywise Platter at the Nourishing Gourmet, and Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.