I love to entertain, especially during the holidays. When I invite friends for dinner, I’m always looking for something special and different to serve. Holiday dinners are often more formal, and most of us go out of our way to decorate our homes and set our tables with beautiful holiday linens and china. Of course if we have an elegant table, we need to serve elegant food. The problem is that during the holidays we are busier than ever—not only with entertaining, but also buying gifts and gearing up for our family celebrations. How, then are we expected to serve elegant food when we’re so short on time?

This Gingered Pumpkin and Apple Bisque is a delicious fancy fall soup incorporating some of the most popular seasonal flavors: pumpkin, and apples. It tastes like it took hours to cook, yet because it is made with my Basic Cream Soup Mix (click on the link at the bottom of this article for the recipe), it is actually very quick and easy. Your guests will never guess that you spent almost no time on this soup. I like to serve this soup as a small soup course on Thanksgiving, as it is wonderful and very different. It’s also very good as a main dish soup with hot bread from your automatic bread baker of course!

12 starter servings or 8 main dish servings

1/2 pound bacon, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
2 Granny Smith apples, pared and chopped

6 cups water
1 15 oz. can pure pumpkin
2 cups Basic Cream Soup Mix
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1 cup sour cream


Cook the bacon in a skillet until it is crisp. Drain the bacon on paper towels and set aside. Pour all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease out of the pan and sauté the onion, ginger, and apples until tender. Add 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Turn the heat off and add the pumpkin. Pour the mixture into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Transfer into a Dutch oven or soup pot.

Add 4 cups water to the pumpkin mixture, then the brown sugar, salt, pepper, nutmeg and curry powder. Whisk the mixture until it comes to a boil. Just before serving, stir in the sour cream and sprinkle with the crumbled bacon.

Basic Cream Soup Mix

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