Description

This easy, cozy pumpkin soup is a fall twist on classic chicken and dumplings! Ready in under an hour.

Ingredients

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For the soup

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 large celery sticks, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 heaping cup pumpkin purée (see recipe notes)
½ cup dry white wine (we used a Chardonnay)
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
⅓ cup milk

For the dumplings

½ cup canned pumpkin purée (see recipe notes)
1 cup all purpose flour (120 grams)
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of Kosher salt

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Instructions

Start the soup

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Sauté, stirring frequently, for 3-5 minutes until onion has softened and begins to brown.
Add thyme, sage, salt, and pepper; stir to combine.
Reserve 1/2 cup of pumpkin purée for the dumplings; stir the rest into the soup pot.
Deglaze with white wine, then stir in the chicken broth and another generous pinch of kosher salt. Bring soup to a simmer while you mix the dumplings.

Mix the dumpling dough

Stir reserved pumpkin purée, flour, sage, baking powder, and a pinch of kosher salt together in a medium bowl. It will feel like it isn’t quite coming together at first, but as the moisture in the pumpkin saturates the flour it will pull together in a thick, shaggy dough (we like to use a fork to mix everything until no dry flour remains).

Cook the dumplings & finishing touches

Use a teaspoon to portion the dumpling dough into pieces and drop them into the soup as it simmers (we like using about ½ teaspoon per dumpling for bite-sized pieces). Spread the dumplings out across the surface of the soup as you drop them in to prevent sticking.
Add cooked chicken and gently stir to combine. Cook another 6-8 minutes at a very low simmer, until dumplings are puffy and cooked through.
Stir in milk, then taste the soup and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve immediately.

Notes

A note about pumpkin. You'll use one full 15-ounce can of pumpkin purée in this recipe. Reserve 1/2 cup of pumpkin for the dumpling dough; stir the rest into the soup itself. Look for pumpkin labeled "100% pure pumpkin," as opposed to pumpkin pie filling.

Substitutions and Additions. The wine lends important acidity to this soup; if you’d like an alcohol free version, use additional chicken stock instead of the wine, but finish the soup with a splash of lemon juice or a few drops of apple cider vinegar just before serving to help mimic the balance the white wine gives us here. Add kale, spinach, or beans (cannellini beans, butter beans) to this soup to make it a bit heartier. For extra depth of flavor, add a pinch of cayenne pepper or smoked paprika along with the other dried herbs, or finish the soup with a few drops of an umami-rich sauce (like Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, or fish sauce).

We used store-bought rotisserie chicken here; you can swap it for meal prepped crockpot chicken or Dutch oven shredded chicken. If you don't have pre-cooked chicken on hand, you can make it at the beginning: Season boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, sear in a bit of oil until browned, then set aside while you build the soup (we do all of this in the same soup pot for maximum flavor). Return seared chicken to the soup when you add the chicken broth, simmer until it's cooked through, then shred the chicken and continue with the dumplings as instructed.