Blender Pumpkin Bisque

This is the easiest pumpkin recipe on the planet. And, if that wasn’t awesome enough, it’s also super impressive. Like, you could serve it to company kind of impressive. They don’t need to know that it only took you five minutes to make and you did it all in the blender.

Unless they ask. Then tell them how you found the recipe on this super dorky girl’s food blog and send ’em my way. I love new friends!

Let’s chat a little bit about blenders, eh? To make this blender soup, you are, obviously, going to need one.

There are really two different classes of blenders out there. There are the standard kitchen blenders that you can nab at the discount store for $50 or less. They are great for blending up smoothies or making margaritas (or making smoothie margaritas—which I’ve never done, but sounds amazing, doesn’t it?). But they tend to struggle with more intense uses.

That’s where the line of high-power blenders come in. There are a whole range of high power blenders out there ranging in price from about $100 to more than I pay for my mortgage each month. The blender I use in my kitchen almost everyday is a Ninja Ultima (which I won in a contest at a conference; I totally made a fool out of myself, I was so excited).

I like to recommend the Ultima to folks because it’s a nice, solid high-power blender, but the price is middle-of-the-road. There are definitely more powerful blenders out there—and I wouldn’t turn one of the $500 ones away if it showed up on my doorstep with a bow on top—but for my day-to-day use, our Ninja totally rocks it. I think it’s a much more reasonable kind of investment for the home cook.

(I realize this sounds like a sponsored post. But it isn’t. I just love my blender. I honestly don’t even think the people at Ninja know I exist beyond just as the crazy girl who wigged out when she won a blender.)

Anywho, why am I talking so much about blenders? Well, I think the key to getting this Blender Pumpkin Bisque so creamy, smooth, and dreamy is using a high-powered blender. The high-powered motor in blenders like my Ninja make the soup velvety smooth.

What makes this soup come together so quickly (and tastily) is the pureeing of aromatics like onions and garlic, which is tricky to do in a standard-power blender. I’ve never tried making this in a regular blender, but based on my experience with green smoothies in a regular blender, I’d think you might end up with a bowl with raw onion chunks in it. Which doesn’t sound all that appetizing to me.

I’ve also had great luck getting that velvety smoothness using a hand/stick/immersion blender (this Cuisinart is the one we use). A good quality immersion blender is a wonderful option for folks on a budget or with limited storage space in their kitchen. It does take a little bit longer to make sure everything is velvety smooth, but it’ll get there!

When you’re looking at the recipe below, you’re probably going to look at some of the measurements and think, gee, Cass, this is going to be awfully bland! And coming from the girl who doubles garlic in any recipe on a matter of principle, normally, I would totally agree with you. But you have to remember that this bisque is more or less raw. After blending it, you’re just warming it through to taste, not to cook.

Since you’re using items without cooking, the flavors are much more concentrated. A whole head of roasted garlic spread on some warm bread, delicious! But you probably wouldn’t dream of nomming on a raw clove of garlic for fun. Cooking mellows flavors, and since we aren’t really cooking this soup, there will be no mellowing. Season with caution!

I pretended like it wasn’t 95° outside (seriously, Fall, you can show up anytime now), and served this soup up with a big, buttery grilled cheese for dipping. The whole meal took me about 10 minutes to make, start to finish (I whirled the bisque in the blender while the grilled cheese was…grilling). I’m thinking this combo might be a weekly tradition this Fall and Winter! Enjoy.