Garrett County Goodness

Only 30-35 miles from home, a trip to Garrett County, Maryland is rewarded in beautiful scenery and premium local foods. With the harvest season ending and Christmas season upon us, it was a good day to make Pablo's Creamy Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Soup.  The recipe features Firefly Farms Allegheny Chevre where a little of this homemade goat cheese "goes a long way to offset the rich sweet notes in pumpkin soup".   While purchasing cheese at Firefly Creamery, I also found this grainy bread that was perfect for a leftover Thanksgiving Turkey sandwich.  The pie pumpkin was purchased at Klotz Farm Friendsville store earlier in the season.  The turkey is a Working H Farms couldn't be fresher bird (it was alive on Monday).

I modified the original recipe to utilize the ingredients I had on hand.

Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Soup

(6 Cups)

Quarter pumpkin, removing pulp and seeds.  Spray with oil.  Roast at 425 F. for 45 minutes.
1 pie pumpkin
Olive oil spray
Remove peel and dice roasted pumpkin.

In a large saucepan, sauté onion, fennel and celery in olive oil 3 minutes.
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoon fennel, diced
2 tablespoon celery stalks and leaves, diced
2 tablespoon olive oil

Stir in curry powder and sauté 1 minute.
1 tablespoon curry powder

Add ginger, orange juice, zest and stock.
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
Juice and zest from 1 orange
3 cups low sodium chicken stock (GMO free)
Add roasted pumpkin.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Stir in milks, goat cheese, salt and seasoning.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Carefully add 3 cups of soup to a blender at a time.  Remove center piece of blender lid.  Cover lid and open center with a cloth and blend until smooth.  Return blended soup to saucepan and simmer until hot but not boiling.
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup evaporated skim milk
1 cup Allegheny Chevre
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash

Carefully remove seeds from pulp.  Wash, dry and spread on a baking sheet.  Roast at 500 F. for about 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to prevent burning.
Pumpkin seeds
Garnish soup with roasted seeds.