Pumpkin Sage Soup!!! Creamy, flavorful and savory. This Pumpkin Sage Soup is perfect for fall and is delicious comfort in a bowl.
A little over a week ago, I was in Chicago attending a Test Kitchen event hosted by ALDI. We were there for two days and let me tell you, there was enough food involved over those two days to feed a small army.
Day 1 started with a visit to ALDI headquarters, where we visited their test kitchen and participated in a blind tasting of several food products. Each station featured an ALDI brand versus a leading national brand. We sampled everything from orange juice to yogurt to granola bars and tortilla chips. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and, based on taste, I chose the ALDI brand 9 out of 10 times. Tastes better and costs less? No brainer. I know where I’m buying my orange juice, crackers, granola bars and tortilla chips from now on.
ALDI also has a gluten free product line, which we also got to sample. So, if you’re gluten-free, no worries! ALDI has you covered!
We then moved on to our Sensory Pairings session, where Sensory Expert Gail Vance Civille and Certified Master Sommelier Leslee Miller hosted a joint food and wine pairings presentation and demonstration. They taught us why particular foods and wines pair well, and why others do not, based on our senses. I’ve never looked at wine so thoroughly before. . the color, smelling it and tasting it and thinking about what it reminds us of. And that “rule” where red wine goes with meat and white wine with chicken and fish, for example, doesn’t really apply anymore. Red or white, it’s really all about how the wines enhance the foods and vice versa.
My favorite part of this session was then sampling different wines with different foods, like cheese (of course!) and chocolate and cheesecake!! Hello!!
We then moved on to a little competition, where we were placed into teams and had to put what we had just learned to the test! We were tasked with pairing a wine with each course for a full holiday meal. My team enthusiastically finished first. . and promptly got last place. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Team 1: you are all still #1 to me. (From left to right: Jessica from Savory Experiments, Kellie from The Suburban Soapbox, Kit from The Kittchen, Julie from Willow Bird Baking and me!)
We ended the evening with a gorgeous and delicious dinner prepared by the ALDI kitchen chefs. We started with an amazing Pumpkin Sage Soup, which I am sharing with you today! You guys. . this soup is so delicious! I love baking with pumpkin in the fall but let me tell you. . savory pumpkin dishes are the BEST. And I added some bacon because I love the saltiness with this soup and the texture. #winning
The key to this soup is combining vegetables and APPLES, mixing them with brown sugar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and then roasting them until tender. Oh my gawd, you guys. . not only did this smell amazing, but I wanted to skip the soup and just eat the roasted veggies and apples. So good!
But fortunately, I went on and made my soup. . and I’m so happy I did. This soup is now officially up there with my top 5 fave soups for the fall. I’ll be sharing the rest of my ALDI visit in another post. . so until then, you guys have to try this soup!
I hope you enjoy!
- 2 small onions, peeled and diced
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 ribs of celery, halved and sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
- 2 medium to large sized Idaho russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 tablespoon fresh sage, minced
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 15-ounce cans 100% pure canned pumpkin
- 1 32-ounce carton vegetable stock
- 1 cup heavy cream
- cooked crispy bacon, crumbled
- gouda cheese, freshly grated
- cooked crispy sage leaves for garnish
- Preheat oven to 400°. Combine the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, apples, potatoes, sage and brown sugar in a large bowl. Drizzle on the extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Place into a roasting pan and roast in oven for about 30 minutes, or until tender.
- After the vegetables are finished, using a large pot over medium-high heat, combine the roasted vegetable mixture, canned pumpkin and vegetable stock. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Using a hand blender or immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth or your desired consistency. Add the heavy cream, taste and adjust any seasoning as needed. Serve warm with the gouda cheese, bacon and crispy sage as a garnish. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from ALDI US.
Disclosure: This post is in partnership with ALDI’s Holiday Blogger Ambassador Program. This is a sponsored post. As always, all opinions expressed here are 100% my own.
Always happy reading your travel experience, Alice. And this soup sounds so awesome, especially the combination of veggies and apple. Totally comforting. Yum!
What a fun event!! Thanks so much for the recap! And this soup looks so creamy and comforting. I must make this soon!! Pinned. 🙂
Yum, that’s a nice combination of flavors and the texture looks divine!
Your weekend sounds like it was a total blast! Awesome pictures—love shopping at Aldi! 🙂
And this soup!! Oh my gosh, that’s it. I have GOT to hop on this pumpkin soup train everyone keeps talking about. I love love savory pumpkin and in soup form with crispy bacon just can’t be wrong!! So trying this. Pinned! 😉
What fun! I love seeing what goes on behind the scenes…and this pumpkin soup sounds absolutely divine!
Sounds like you had a wonderful time at the Aldi event, Alice! I’m so glad you shared this soup with today. It sounds fabulous! Pumpkin soup is one of my favorites for the fall, and I love the sage flavor that you mixed in here. I love the mix of veggies and apples in here, too! Sounds like the perfect fall soup!
What a fun time! That soup looks fantastic!
Looks like so much fun Alice! This soup also looks so creamy and delicious; love the pop of colour!!
Apples are absolutely essential in fall soups – I had no idea until a couple years ago, but it’s one of my favorite “not so secret” secrets. This soup sounds delicious – looooooove pumpkin and sage together 🙂
This soup looks absolutely lovely! I love the roasted vegetables and apples in it, what a great addition to a soup!
This soup is pure perfection!!! I am totally pinning it to make for my family soon and I have to say that I just want to pack myself in your suitcase. You go all of the best places!!!
The tour and tasting at ALDI looks like such a fun event! I’m drooling over that cheesecake. And this pumpkin sage soup looks incredible. I love how it is thick and flavorful!
I love this post! You guys had so much fun at Aldi’s. Thanks for sharing this soup! Just what I need to curl up to tonight!
Such a fun event! And I am dying over this soup..all of those flavors sounds amazing together!
What fun to have a tasting session with a master sommelier! This soup looks AMAZING! I say this as I’m freezing in my apartment right now. I definitely need to make this soon!
Soup is my favorite dinner companion when it starts to get chilly out (that’s now!). Love the creamy pumpkin variety here with vegetables.. can’t wait to try!
Aldi is my absolute favorite – I started going in Madison when they opened one just around the corner from our condo! I do 95% of my shopping there and always love the ever changing stock. Their cream cheese is 99 cents now so of course, I stocked up! 🙂
This sounds awesome! Love the apples in there. And what a FUN trip! That cheesecake. Oh my.
Ermagaaaaawd a whole weekend of sampling food and wine?!?! That’s totally up my alley. I would’ve been like, “Ummm, I didn’t get enough of a mouthful to properly judge these samples. Keep ’em coming!” And this soup sounds absolutely divine. Now that I finally have a proper food processor that holds more than 1 cup, I’ve been making creamy soups like nobody’s business. The addition of apple and bacon is brilliant! That bright orange colour is gorgeous.
What a fabulous post! Loved seeing the behind the scenes – the tour and tasting looked like so much fun! 🙂 This pumpkin sage soup looks incredible! The apple sounds amazing with all the other flavors and I love how thick and creamy this looks!
Sounds like such a fun experience! And love this soup and all the toppings. Really, pureed soups are all about the toppings in my book! XO
Wow! That event sounds like it was a blast. And this pumpkin sage soup? Yes, please…that is perfect for our first snow day of the year! Pinned!
I remember tasting this soup at the test kitchens and it was SO GOOD! Love that you made this, and loved reading your recap too. What a fun time!
Sounds like so much fun and although I have never tried pumpkin soup your recipe makes me want to make it right now. 🙂 Yummy
This sounds like so much fun! I want my own test kitchen! I knew I’d love this recipe as soon as I saw the title – sage is my favorite herb right now!
What a fun trip! I have no clue how to pair things together so I feel like I would have been TOTALLY lost. I do, however, think this bacon and sage pairs perfectly with the savory pumpkin. Yum!
I must try this! Any recipe recommendations for butternut squash soup?
I’m totally jealous of you Aldi trip! Looked fun.
I’ve never made pumpkin soup! That obviously needs to change. Mmm….
That trip sounded so fun! Love this soup! I have been putting sage in everything recently but I haven’t made soup yet! Pinned! [I love how you plated it, btw. I find soups so difficult!]
Sounds like you had an awesome time! This soup is so rich and smooth, delicious!!!
That trip looked like so much fun! I love ALDI – their stuff is really great, I just wish they had a bigger selection of stuff at my local store. And this soup…. how did you know pumpkin ans sage was my favorite – especially in soup form! Pinning
What a fantastic trip Alice! Gorgeous soup, and adding apples seems like a genius move. I absolutely love those flavors.
Pumpkin Soup looks amazing, looks like you all had a blast!
This is happening in my kitchen SOON! The flavors sound amazing. I bet your house smelled so good while those veggies and apples were roasting!