Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Chickpeas

1. For the crispy chickpeas, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Drain chickpeas, and pat dry. Onto a large baking sheet, add chickpeas, pumpkin oil, salt, black pepper, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Toss until well coated. Bake 25 minutes, or until crispy. Set aside and keep oven on.
2. For the soup, slice pumpkin in half, and scoop out and discard seeds and flesh (or reserve the seeds and roast with a touch of pumpkin oil). Slice pumpkin into large wedges.
3. Onto a second baking sheet, add pumpkin, 2 tablespoons pumpkin oil, maple syrup, salt, and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Toss until well coated. Bake 40 minutes, flipping halfway through, until pumpkin is soft. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet.
4. Into a large pot over medium heat, warm remaining 2 tablespoons pumpkin oil. Add chopped onion and garlic, and sauté 5 minutes.
5. Once pumpkin is cool enough to handle, remove and discard peel. To the pot, add pumpkin, vegetable stock, cashews, cinnamon, onion powder, garlic powder, 1 teaspoon black pepper, paprika, cumin, and coriander. Bring to a boil and turn off heat.
6. Using a hand-held blender (or transfer entire mixture to a blender), blend until smooth. Add more vegetable stock if necessary to achieve desired thickness. Ladle into four bowls (or pumpkins), and serve with crispy chickpeas.

EDITOR’S TIP:

How did we make our pumpkin bowls? Start with 1-pound sugar pie pumpkins and cut off tops. Scoop out and discard seeds and flesh, brush insides with 1 teaspoon pumpkin oil, and bake 30 minutes at 425 degrees.