Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Spicy Pumpkin and Butter Bean Soup #CraftyOctober
Home » HOLIDAYS » HALLOWEEN »Welcome to Day 6 of Crafty October 2014 (check out 2013 and 2012 here) – a month of Halloween Ideas here on The Purple Pumpkin Blog!
Autumn and Winter is the time of year that I do a lot more cooking using a slow cooker. There is something really comforting about smelling the food cooking throughout the day (I work from home), and I love that you can literally just throw everything into the pot, turn it on and then not have to worry about it all day long. So today I’ve got a recipe for a delicious Spicy Pumpkin and Butter Bean Soup.
Not only is October #CraftyOctober for me on my blog, it is also Crocktober organised by the original makers of the slow cooker – Crock-Pot. They asked some of their favourite bloggers to contribute some slow cooker recipes, and since I love cooking with mine, I said yes immediately when they asked me!
Check out the #Crocktober Link Party at the bottom of this post, where you can share your favourite slow cooker recipes!
I was sent a 4.7L digital Crock-Pot to use, which felt very space age! I’ve never had a timer on a slow cooker before – I just turn it on and leave it! What I loved about the digital one was that after the time has run out, it sets itself to warm, so you don’t have to worry about overcooking. Although, I’ve never worried about that – I’ve cooked some things for nearly 24 hours before!!
Since this soup contains pumpkins, and October is a month of pumpkins as far as I’m concerned, it felt good to share this recipe as part of Crafty October too. I have never made soup in a slow cooker before, so this was new territory for me. I have to say that it turned out brilliantly – and tasty too – and making soup in the slow cooker is so easy, I’m going to do it that way all the time from now on!
Generally, when I cook in a slow cooker, I don’t measure much and just guess as I go along, some of my recipes are a bit more precise, like my Hawaiian Pulled Pork. I like to keep things as simple as I can when it comes to the recipes I make up, and I think that this soup recipe is one of those! You can adjust the various spices to your own tastes. We like things a bit hot in this house, but you can dial it down if you need to.
I used a medium sized pumpkin, which gave around a kilogram of flesh after peeling and deseeding. If you can’t find pumpkin yet, you could use butternut squash instead. You could also substitute the dried chilli flakes for fresh chilli. To keep this dish vegetarian, I used vegetable stock, but you could also use chicken stock for added flavour.
I treated making soup in the Crock-Pot the same as I would in a pan, once the veggies were cooked, I blitzed with an hand-held immersion blender, and then seasoned if needed, with salt and black pepper. I was then able to add the butter beans before the final bit of slow cooking.
I served the spicy pumpkin soup with some milk drizzled on top (you could use cream for added decadence!) and some toasted pumpkin seeds. This soup was a mouthful of flavour and texture!
Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Spicy Pumpkin and Butter Bean Soup
Makes 6-8 portions
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Slow Cook Time: 5 hours on high
Ingredients
- 1 medium sized pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 1″ chunks
- 1 potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
- 2 white onions, peeled and cut into chunks
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 450ml vegetable stock
- ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
- milk or cream, to serve (optional)
- toasted pumpkin seeds, to serve (optional)
Method
- Turn your slow cooker to high.
- Place all of the prepared vegetables and garlic into the pot.
- Pour over the stock.
- Sprinkle over the chilli flakes and spices and give everything a toss with a large spoon to coat everything.
- Cook for 4 hours and after this time, puree in the pot with a hand-held immersion blender.
- Taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper if you wish.
- Stir in the butter beans and cook for a further hour.
- To serve, pour into bowls, drizzle with a little milk or cream and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds.
Disclosure: I was sent a Crock-Pot Slow Cooker to develop recipes.
November 18, 2014 @ 10:30 pm
This soup looks and sounds delicious. I love beans and pumpkin, it sounds very filling and winter warming. I’ll have to try it soon.
November 18, 2014 @ 6:44 pm
Love pumpkin, love beans…what’s not to love about this recipe! :-)
November 18, 2014 @ 7:37 am
Definitely going to try this :)
November 18, 2014 @ 2:08 am
I love pumpkin and I love butter beans – an inspired combination
November 17, 2014 @ 4:03 pm
I’m going to try this, using butter beans sounds great
November 17, 2014 @ 2:50 pm
Oh, what a great way to use up squashes. Can’t wait to try this. It looks delicious!
November 17, 2014 @ 1:38 pm
Sounds delicious
November 17, 2014 @ 3:32 am
I love making soup and this one looks delicious ! I am going to try it tomorrow!
November 16, 2014 @ 10:05 pm
Looks & sounds yummy. I love cooking with pumpkins this time of year and soup is the perfect warming food!
November 16, 2014 @ 9:27 pm
this sounds like my kind of soup, and perfect for this time of year with a warming bit of spice to it. I think I’ll try it instead of my usual sweet potato and parsnip. Will cook it in a pressure cooker though, should work ok I think!
November 16, 2014 @ 4:17 pm
This is so perfect! Ive been obsessed with pumpkin ever since Halloween. Cant get enough of it so this recipe will be great!
November 16, 2014 @ 4:07 pm
This sounds delicious, i love savoury pumpkin recipes x
November 15, 2014 @ 5:20 pm
Being vegeterian and a huge fan of the very underused ingredient of pumpkin this particular receipe would be my ultimate choice to try out if and when i ever get a slow cooker.
November 14, 2014 @ 12:44 pm
Got to try this, looks delicious x
November 14, 2014 @ 10:39 am
Tried the Spicy Pumpkin and Butter Bean Soup (unfortunately without a slow cooker as I don’t have one) but still delicious. Just love soups at this time of the year!
November 14, 2014 @ 12:18 pm
Glad to hear it worked out just as well without a slow cooker!
November 7, 2014 @ 8:04 pm
Going to try this one!
November 4, 2014 @ 7:12 pm
looks delicious and very Halloweeny! (although I’ll probably have this several times over christmas :p)
November 3, 2014 @ 3:26 pm
The soup sounds delicious and is absolutely perfect for this time of year – I’ll definitely be giving it a try.
November 3, 2014 @ 1:43 am
This sounds so delicious, now the weather has started to turn and the evenings are getting darker earlier this is just the kind of confort food I’m looking to make – will have to give it a go!
November 2, 2014 @ 11:11 pm
this is quite different!
November 2, 2014 @ 8:10 pm
mmmmm this looks amazing
November 2, 2014 @ 11:05 am
fab use of pumpkins.
November 1, 2014 @ 2:54 pm
Very seasonal, and we have all the ingredients too!
October 30, 2014 @ 9:00 pm
Oh my goodness this looks so delicious – it’s making me hungry even though i’ve just had dinner haha :p THe presentation is so pretty too! x
October 29, 2014 @ 12:20 pm
Yum. Love pumpkin flavoured stuff. Your glass it is in is awesome as well!
October 29, 2014 @ 12:29 pm
Thanks! I love that glass, it’s a Tiki one from Walt Disney World!!
October 29, 2014 @ 11:22 am
This sounds lovely, thank you.
October 29, 2014 @ 12:29 pm
It’s a yummy recipe!
October 29, 2014 @ 10:56 am
This looks delicious!
October 29, 2014 @ 12:29 pm
It was! Making it again on Friday!
October 29, 2014 @ 2:17 am
This looks yummy :)
October 29, 2014 @ 12:29 pm
It was delish!
October 28, 2014 @ 10:53 pm
looks lovely :)
October 28, 2014 @ 9:35 pm
looks really yummy
October 28, 2014 @ 9:21 pm
This so look’s so tasty and has butter beans in – my husband and son would both love this!
October 29, 2014 @ 12:30 pm
Hope they enjoy it when/if you make it!
October 28, 2014 @ 7:42 pm
yum, would love to try making this
October 28, 2014 @ 8:35 pm
It’s worth making – it is so delish!
October 28, 2014 @ 8:38 pm
I definitely will, thank you!
October 28, 2014 @ 7:32 pm
Pumpkin and butter beans – two of my favorite things – this should be an incredible soup!
October 28, 2014 @ 8:35 pm
It really was – I loved how it turned out!
October 28, 2014 @ 5:44 pm
i love pumpkin soup but this is a slightly different recipe to the one i usually use so i definitely want to try this one
October 28, 2014 @ 8:36 pm
I’m always on the hunt for pumpkin soup recipes!
October 28, 2014 @ 1:32 pm
What a great autumn recipe.
October 28, 2014 @ 8:36 pm
Pumpkin is the quintessential autumn ingredient!
October 28, 2014 @ 1:30 pm
Sounds delicious and very timely too, what with having an upcoming bowl of pumpkin to find a use for!
October 28, 2014 @ 8:36 pm
Perfect timing! Hope you enjoy it!
October 28, 2014 @ 12:55 pm
I never know what to do with the scooped out pumpkin, I now have a delicious
Spicy Pumpkin and Butter Bean Soup recipe Thank You xxx
October 28, 2014 @ 8:36 pm
And hopefully now you do! Let me know how you got on if you make it! x
October 28, 2014 @ 8:38 pm
Thank You, I will xxx
October 8, 2014 @ 10:50 pm
Oh may have to try this…got myself a slow cooker and have used it all of once!!
October 8, 2014 @ 9:59 pm
oh yum – I never know what to do with the pumpkin innards
October 7, 2014 @ 3:30 pm
oh I’m SO glad its October and seeing pumpkin recipes! x
October 8, 2014 @ 8:03 am
It’s the best time of year! Pumpkins are such a versatile ingredient! x