Tomato Pumpkin Blender Soup (Low-Carb)

If you're craving a warm nutritious soup but are short on fresh produce, this quick soup has got you covered. Nearly all of the ingredients are pantry items and the fresh garlic and ginger can be replaced with jarred pastes if needed. Thanks to the pumpkin, a single one-cup (250g) serving of this soup has over 50% of your daily vitamin A requirement. The inclusion of nutritional yeast makes it high in B vitamins as well. This soup is a wee bit high in net carbs without a great deal of protein, so I'd suggest pairing it with some high protein bread or crackers. Topping it with some toasted pumpkin seeds is also an option.
Yield: 9 servings of about 1 cup (250g) each or 6 servings of about 1½ cups (375g) each, totaling roughly 9 cups (2,250g)
​Macros (per 1 cup serving): 130 calories | 3g protein | 9.5g fat | 6g net carbs ​
​Macros (per 1½ cup serving): 195 calories | 5g protein | 14g fat | 9g net carbs
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 5 minutes
Equipment required: a blender with a soup function and a large (64-ounce [2-liter]) carafe (or halve the recipe). ✎
Storage: refrigerated for up to 5 days. I often just store the soup in the blender carafe and run the soup cycle again to reheat it. If doing this, make sure you've eaten enough the first time around that the contents is below the maximum fill line.
Ingredients:
  • 4 cups (960ml) vegetable broth or 2 boullion cubes and 4 cups (960ml) of water, divided ✎
  • 1 15-ounce can (425g) unsweetened pumpkin purée
  • 1 14.5-ounce can (411g) diced tomatoes ✎
  • 1 13.5-ounce can (400g) full-fat coconut milk or equivalent in low-carb plant-based cream
  • 2 cloves (6g) garlic (equal to 1 teaspoon crushed)
  • a ¼-inch (6mm) slice (6g) fresh ginger (equal to 1 teaspoon grated/paste)​ ✎
  • ¼ cup (20g) nutritional yeast flakes
  • 2 tablespoons (25g) allulose or equivalent in keto-friendly sweetener of choice (optional) ✎
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin 
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes ​(optional or to taste)
  • ½ teaspoon garam masala
Directions:
  1. Put half of the vegetable broth (i.e. 2 cups [480ml]) and all other ingredients in the carafe of your blender. If using boullion cubes and water, you can put both cubes in the blender now and half of the water. If you don't want to use your stovetop or a kettle to heat the other half of the broth/water, I suggest halving the recipe so all the ingredients will fit in your blender. If you'd like to garnish your soup like the photo, set aside a little coconut milk and tomato for topping. 
  2. Select the soup function on your blender and start.
  3. Meanwhile, heat the other half of the broth or water to a simmer on the stovetop or in a kettle.
  4. When the blender has stopped, add the hot broth/water and blend briefly on the lowest speed setting to incorporate, or mix the broth/water in by hand. The blender carafe will be very full, above the fill line.
  5. Divide equally between 6 or 9 soup bowls (about 1½ cups [360ml] or 1 cup [240ml] per bowl) and enjoy hot. If you'd like to make it look fancy, drizzle and swirl with a little coconut milk and canned tomato (crush/mash for better appearance), and sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds, cumin seeds, crushed red pepper flakes, and garam masala.​
✎ Notes:
  • This recipe makes quite a lot of soup, above the upper fill limit of a 64-ounce (2-liter) carafe. This is why the instructions direct you to halve the broth/water and add the second half post blending. If your blender has a 32-ounce (1-liter) carafe, halve the recipe. If your blender has a 48-ounce (1.5-liter) carafe, halve the recipe and add all of the broth/water at the start. You'll have plenty of space for it.
  • Vegetable broths and boullion cubes, pastes, or powders are often high in net carbs due to added sugars and starches, so check your labels. I use Edward & Sons bouillon cubes, which have almost no carbs, and water.​
  • The slice of ginger is about 1¼ inches (3.2cm) in diameter.
  • Fire-roasted toamtoes with garlic is a nice option if available to you. Hunt's makes these.
  • The sweetener takes some of the bite off the tomatoes. If you're not sure about the sweetener, feel free to omit it in the initial blending and add it afterwards if you find you want to include it.
  • This soup may be rather thick and rich for some people's taste. If that's the case for you, thin it with some additional broth or water, or increase the amount of coconut milk. Note that this last option will have a significant effect on the amount of fat/calories in the final product.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the bouillon cubes (Edward & Sons), diced tomatoes (Hunt's), coconut milk (Aroy-D), and nutritional yeast flakes (blend of Bob's Redmill and Foods Alive unfortified).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.