Pumpkin Soup w/ Pumpkin Cornbread

I was in a pumpkin mood last night. To better put that, I was in the mood for pumpkin last night. As I said in earlier posts pumpkin a great fall flavor and I will use it as often as I can.

Last night's creations were a simple pumpkin soup and pumpkin-pecan cornbread.

The original recipe for the soup called for a can of condensed cream of potato soup. I was hoping to find a low-sodium variety and when I could not, I substituted it for cream of chicken. As a side note, I'm not monitoring my sodium but I think you should always be aware of how much you are ingesting. The rest of the soup consisted of pumpkin, cream, seasonings, and water. I added more seasonings than the original recipe called for since I knew that the reduction in sodium would reduce the flavor. The soup then simmered for about 30 minutes. Its a creamy soup and doesn't have much texture but does have a good flavor. I wouldn't serve it for a main dish, but as a side it would be great.

The pumpkin-pecan cornbread muffins were made from scratch; it too was a simple recipe. Flour, corn meal, leavening, and salt are mixed with pumpkin, brown sugar, oil, and eggs until blended then chopped pecans are folded in. Then the muffins are baked until they look done. Although a bit dry, the cornbread had great flavor. I tend to like my cornbread a little sweeter so in the next batch I will probably increase the amount of brown sugar and possible dust the surface of the muffins with sugar before baking.