The Best Pumpkins for Soup

Smaller Sizes

Baby Bear pumpkins grow to a smaller size that is convenient as a soup bowl. The seeds are partially hulled and are good to use as a snack when roasted. Hooligan pumpkins are quite small but make excellent soup bowls with their flesh carved out. Jack-be-Little pumpkins are palm-sized and can last for months out of the sunlight before cooking them into your soup. Sugar pumpkins are generally smaller and have a higher flesh to seed-cavity ratio. They are less stringy and more flavorful than most carving pumpkins.

Cinderella pumpkins are a French variety; the name was acquired due to the similarity in shape of this pumpkin and the pumpkin that Cinderella's carriage turned into in the fairy tale. Another legend places it at the first Thanksgiving table as the variety of pumpkin the pilgrims cultivated. Cinderella pumpkins have a solid pumpkin flavor for cooking. Halloween in Paris is a flavorful pumpkin variety. Its texture is slightly watery, however, so if you want a highly concentrated pumpkin flavor in your soup you should drain the water from the puree prior to adding additional ingredients.

A pumpkin that is not the classic pumpkin shape can have just as much flavor and wonderful texture as a traditional, round pumpkin. Cushaw Green and Gold are bowling-pin shaped pumpkins that come in different striped combinations. Their smooth textured flesh makes them well-qualified for cooking in pieces. Red Warty Thing is a strange looking pumpkin variety but has an excellent texture that works well in soup.

There are many medium sized varieties that are just as flavorful as the smaller, sugar pumpkins. Jack-be-Quick pumpkins are slightly larger than their Jack-be-Little cousins. They are long lasting and flavorful. Lumina pumpkins are often used as carving pumpkins due to their white exterior, but they are full of pumpkin flavor as well. Snack Jacks have partially hulled seeds, similar to Baby Bear pumpkins, and have textured and flavorful flesh.