October. The month of pumpkin everything and Donna Abernathy's annual war against pumpkin spice.
'Pumpkin spice is not a flavor,' Mom declared on Monday, standing in the kitchen with a can of actual pumpkin in one hand and a look of moral outrage on her face. 'It's cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves. There's no pumpkin in pumpkin spice. This is fraud.'
She is not wrong. She is also deeply passionate about this, in the way that only a woman who bakes real pumpkin pie from real pumpkin can be. Every October, Donna Abernathy wages a one-woman campaign against the pumpkin-spice-industrial complex, and every October, I buy a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and hide the cup in my car like contraband.
To prove her point, Mom made pumpkin soup this week. Not from a can of pumpkin purée — from an actual pumpkin that Dad grew in the garden. She roasted it, scooped out the flesh, and puréed it with chicken broth, onion, garlic, a little cream, nutmeg, and a drizzle of maple syrup. She served it with crusty bread and a side of righteous indignation about Starbucks.
The soup was incredible. Silky, warm, deeply savory with that sweet pumpkin earthiness that you can't get from a syrup pump. She's right. Real pumpkin is better. I'm still going to drink my latte.
School is settling into its rhythm. I've found my spots — the table by the window in the library where Dana and I study, the bench outside the communications building where I eat lunch, the parking spot in lot C that's always open at 9 AM because everyone else has figured out that lot B is closer and I've figured out that lot C has shade.
Commuter student life is about finding your anchors. Without a dorm room, you need places on campus that feel like yours. The library table is mine. The bench is mine. The parking spot is mine. It's not the same as having a room with your name on the door, but it's something.
I've started talking more in class, which is new. In high school I was social but not academic — I spoke up in hallways, not classrooms. But Professor Whitman asks questions that I actually want to answer, and when I talk about military family life in the context of communication theory, the other students lean in. They're interested. Most of them have never known a military family. I'm exotic to them, which is funny because I'm the least exotic person I know — I eat casserole and watch Jeopardy and my dad grows zucchini.
But I have stories. And stories, Professor Whitman says, are the most powerful form of communication there is. So I'm telling mine. Slowly, carefully, one class discussion at a time.
Dinner tonight: leftover pumpkin soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, because Mom believes that soup and grilled cheese is a combination sent from heaven and she will not be argued with. She's right about this too. She's right about most things. Don't tell her I said that.
Mom’s pumpkin soup felt like a whole argument wrapped in a bowl tonight — warm and grounding and impossible to debate. I keep thinking about what Professor Whitman said about stories, and how this family, this kitchen, this specific combination of soup and grilled cheese on a Tuesday night, is mine. So this week I’m sharing a riff on that leftover soup: a sweet potato version with an orange crème fraîche that Mom would probably approve of, and that I will absolutely be making again.
Sweet Potato Soup with Orange Crème Fraîche
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 lbs sweet potatoes (about 3 medium), peeled and cubed
- 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- For the orange crème fraîche:
- 1/2 cup crème fraîche
- 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Roast the vegetables. Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss sweet potato cubes and chopped onion with olive oil, salt, and pepper on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 30–35 minutes, turning once halfway, until tender and lightly caramelized at the edges. Add the smashed garlic cloves to the pan for the last 10 minutes.
- Simmer and blend. Transfer the roasted vegetables and garlic to a large pot. Add chicken broth and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Use an immersion blender (or work in batches in a countertop blender) to pureé the soup until completely smooth and silky.
- Finish the soup. Stir in the heavy cream, maple syrup, and nutmeg. Return to low heat and warm through, about 3–4 minutes. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
- Make the orange crème fraîche. In a small bowl, whisk together the crème fraîche, orange zest, orange juice, and a pinch of salt until smooth and pourable.
- Serve. Ladle the soup into bowls and finish each with a generous swirl of orange crème fraîche. Serve alongside crusty bread or a grilled cheese sandwich, because Mom is right about that combination.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 340 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 20g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 420mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 28 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
