So I’ve taken a break from filming but I still love to test out vintage recipes so I thought in true Witchy Wednesday tradition, I will try my hand at a vintage recipe. After last years struggle of an attempt, I thought I might give myself a bit of a break and try something easy so today we are cooking from The Lily Wallace New American Cook Book published in 1946. We are making Pumpkin Soup (recipe 565, page 134) which is one of my favourite things to make and although I don’t have a recipe that I follow and wing it everytime, it’ll be nice to actually follow steps with specific measurements.

The Lily Wallace New American Cook Book Pumpkin Soup Recipe:
2 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
3 cups milk
1/3 cup boiled rice
2 tablespoons butter
1 tea spoon chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper

Steps:
-Mix pumpkin with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring almost to boiling point.
Note: as canned pumpkin isn’t a thing in Australia, I just chopped up and roasted half a kent pumpkin. I then popped it into the blender until smooth.

-Add milk. Reheat.

-Add other ingredients. Cook for 15 minutes in double boiler.
Note: I didn’t have a double boiler so I cooked it over a very low heat.

-Serves 6-8.

Results
Straight away I ran into a problem; here in Australia, it’s really difficult to find canned pumpkin. After going to several grocery stores, all I could find was canned pumpkin soup which to me wasn’t the same thing (is soup really an ingredient in soup in America…?). I decided instead to cut up some kent pumpkin, roast it until soft and puree that with a bit of seasoning.
The second change I made was I added a little bit of chicken stock in place of the water as I was worried I was losing some flavour from the lack of canned pumpkin. I’ve never tried canned pumpkin so I’m not sure what it actually tastes like which is why I overcompensated.
I have also never seen or heard of anyone using a double boiler to make pumpkin soup (I thought it was mainly for delicate ingredients that cant handle direct heat but what do I know?). When I asked my mum to borrow her double boiler she thought I was that clueless in the kitchen she offered to make me pumpkin soup herself (trust me, her’s is amazing so it was difficult to say no) and even after explaining the method in my madness she still wanted to just do it for me. Ah mums. Instead, I just cooked the soup at a very low heat.
In terms of flavour, the soup was quite delicious. I thought the addition of the rice was a nice touch as it made it a bit more of a complete meal; of course, you can not add rice if you don’t want to. I found the soup creamy and smooth and I am happy I added the stock just to boost up the flavour. This recipe could easily be turned vegan if the milk is replaced with a plant based milk and the butter is changed to margarine.
The ease of this recipe makes it something that can be started and eaten within an hour and of course if you have access to canned pumpkin, it’ll be even faster. I fed it to my in-laws and the main question was “why is there rice in the soup?”. It was quite enjoyable with the addition of a pinch of extra salt. Everyone seemed to enjoy it (or they faked it not to hurt my feelings).

For those who have been asking me about my soup pot, you can find it here.

So what do you think? Will you be trying this recipe yourself? If you do, please let me know how you went! I love seeing everyone create their own vintage dishes and delights. Also, I have been loving all the recipes being sent in from you guys so feel free to keep sharing them with me and I will continue growing my cooking skills.

If you enjoy watching me struggle with vintage recipes, check out these links too!
–Baking a Vintage Pumpkin Cake for Halloween
–Making Salad from 1952 for Valentines Day
–Making Elvis’s Peanut Butter and Banana Fried Sandwiches
–Baking a Vintage Easter Lamb cake

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. This page contains affiliate links/codes which aids in funding future reviews.