Soup with Mushrooms and Pumpkin
Mushrooms and pumpkin sound like an odd pair right up until the first spoonful: the sweetness of the squash rounds off the earthy mushroom note, while the sour element — a tomato, a fresh cucumber, or even a tart apple — keeps the bowl from tasting flat.
That sour component is what makes the recipe adaptable. With apple it turns autumnal and fragrant; with cucumber it is surprisingly fresh, closer to a warm okroshka (the Slavic cold cucumber soup); with tomato it lands nearest to a familiar vegetable soup.
One technical trap: pumpkin softens faster than potato. Cook the vegetables only almost through, then give the pot a few more minutes once the mushrooms and the sour ingredient join them. This soup does not reheat well — by the next day the 200 g (about 7 oz) of pumpkin will have slumped into puree.
Sweating the mushrooms first with onion and a piece of parsley root or celeriac is not optional; it concentrates their flavor so that a single litre of water (roughly 4 cups) starts tasting like stock. If you use tomato puree instead of the fresh tomato, braise it with the mushrooms too, or its raw acidity will sit on top of everything else. The green onion at the table is a third layer of flavor, not a garnish.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 447 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Sweat the mushrooms, onion, and parsley root, all cut into small cubes, in the oil.
Cut the pumpkin and potato into sticks, drop them into the hot broth or water, and cook almost until fully done.
Then add the braised mushrooms and the tomato and cucumber or apple cut into thin slices.
Cook all the ingredients for a few more minutes until they turn soft.
If tomato puree is used instead of a fresh tomato, it must be braised together with the mushrooms and onion.
When serving, add herbs to the soup.
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