Catchy Title that advertises this soup that I made

Oh look, she's doing something with a pumpkin again. Deal with it.

Tonight for dinner I cooked up some Pumpkin soup, topped with pumpkin seed-basil pesto. Kudos to Sunset magazine for giving me the idea for the pumpkin bowls, and a guideline for the recipe. Someone once again clearly has too much time on their hands. I'll tell you here how to make the bowls, soup, and the pesto.

THE BOWLS
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. To start you need six miniature pumpkins.

If they're drunk and can't stand up on their own, cut a (very) thin slice from the bottom of the pumpkin so it sits flat. Set them on a rimmed baking sheet, and rub them (in the least creepy way possible) with olive oil, then top them with salt and pepper.

Yep...that's my pepper shaker.

Bake them for 35 to 40 minutes. When they're done and have cooled off a bit, cut off approximately 2 inch wide lids, and scoop out the insides so there's room for your soup. Once all that stuff is out, ladle in the soup. This is what the pumpkins should look like when you pull them out of the oven:

And this is what it should look like after you've removed the lids and scooped out the insides:

THE SOUP
Ingredients:
1 Large Onion, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp. chopped fresh ginger
2 tbsp. olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp. ground coriander
4 1/2 cups peeled 1-in chunks pumpkin or squash
4 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Saute the onion and ginger in oil in a pot over medium-high heat for approx. 5 minutes. Add the garlic and coriander and cook until softened, about 1 minute, then add pumpkin, broth, salt, and pepper. Simmer, covered, until pumpkin is very tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Puree in batches in a food processor until smooth.

THE PESTO:
Ingredients:
1 small garlic clove
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup salted roasted pumpkin seeds

Grind up the garlic, basil, salt, and 1 tbsp of olive oil in food processor until it resembles a coarse paste. Then add the remaining oil and pumpkin seeds until it is coarsely crushed. Drop small spoonfuls of pesto over the soup in the pumpkin bowls and serve remaining pesto on the side.

Serve with fresh-baked bread!