Sage is a perennial herb that makes a gorgeous plant for any herb garden and supplies its grower with an abundance of dried sage that is a thousand times better than anything you can buy off the shelf. Each year I dry enough sage for a year’s worth of recipes and then some. One such recipe is this Sage Pumpkin Soup with Apples and Andouille which uses a generous amount of crushed dried sage to complement its other ingredients.
This soup uses pumpkin puree’ not just for its flavor, but also as a thickener in place of flour, cornstarch and/or cream. Onion, apple, and andouille sausage provide textures and a depth of flavor that makes every bite a bite to remember. Serve as a starter or a meal.
Sage Pumpkin Soup with Apples and Andouille
A nice twist on pumpkin soup!
The prep and cook assume you already have pumpkin puree.
“*” See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil or garlic infused oil
- ½ large onion, chopped
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- ½ – 1 small hot chile pepper*, minced
- 2 crisp apples*, diced
- 2 andouille sausages, diced
- 2 cups pumpkin puree’*
- 2 cups chicken stock + extra water if needed
- 1 ½ – 2 tsp. dried sage, crushed or 3 tsp. fresh sage, minced
- ½ tsp. ground white pepper
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- Heat the oil in a 4.5 quart soup pot. Once hot, add the garlic, chile, and onion. Turn heat down to medium low and sweat the onions until translucent.
- Add the apples and Andouille. Saute’ for 2 minutes.
- Stir in the pumpkin puree’. Once all ingredients are coated with the puree’, pour in the chicken stock stirring constantly.
- Increase heat to medium. Add the sage, white pepper and vinegar.
- Bring soup to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Taste for seasoning and salt. Add additional sage if you want it more sagey. Additional salt should not be needed because of the andouille and chicken stock, but that’s for you to decide.
- Remove from heat, serve and enjoy.
- Serve with buttermilk cornbread, cornbread crackers made from leftover cornbread, or fried corn tortilla strips.
- Slice stale cornbread into narrow wedges.
- Brush one side with chile oil.
- Brown under broiler.
Chile – This can be pretty much any chile pepper you have on hand. Jalapeno, ancho, yellow hots (guero), cherry bomb, and even habanero. Each year I grow guero chiles that I use for my pickled peppers, so that’s what I use. The amount you use, 1 full chile or 1/2, depends on how hot the chile is, how spicy the andouille is and how spicy you want to soup to be. For this particular soup I usually use 1/2 ripe guero, especially is the andouille is really spicy.
Crispy apples – I highly recommend crispy apples because their texture holds up better and they don’t become mushy.
Pumpkin puree’ – Making your own roasted pumpkin puree’ is the best way to go, but canned puree’ works as well.
To roasted a pumpkin – See instructions below.
To roasted a pumpkin
Cut in half lengthwise, drizzle olive oil on the cut surfaces, and sprinkle with pepper. Roast in a 400°F oven, cut side up, for 40 minutes or until fork tender. Remove from the oven and let cool enough to handle. Using a spoon or fork, scoop out the seeds and fibrous pulp. Discard. Scoop the roasted flesh into a large bowl (for an immersion blender) or blender. Blend until smooth.
A roasted pumpkin usually yields more puree’ that one can use for just one recipe. So if you have extra, here are a few more recipe ideas for pumpkin puree’.
My Herb Garden (front to back)
- Tarragon
- Oregano
- Sage (Blooming)
- Rosemary (Yes, the big tree in the back is a rosemary bush)
Sage, sausage and pumpkin – recipe for yumminess. Thanks
Sage is so beautiful to combine with pumpkin. Never though of adding apples… Perfect comfort food for colder days 🙂 Thank you MJ !
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Pumpkin and apple sounds like the best combination! Great recipe 🙂
I love soups with sausage—it offers so much fabulous flavor! Your pumpkin soup looks divine, my friend!
This sounds really appetizing, feels like I wanna have some dinner now
Could you imagine brown butter sauce without sage? I love it too.
I’ve made a bathtub of butternut soup with apples but never with andouille. What a clever idea and I bet it’s fantastic.
Sounds delicious. Love the sage picture. I didn’t know culinary sage actually bloomed until a couple of years ago when I was actually able to keep some alive over a winter or two.
Thanks Debra! Sage is actually one of my favorite herbs to grown because of its lavender blooms that last a long time. It’s so pretty.
I just might buy a pumpkin to make this. I no longer put out a Jack-o-lantern after the neighborhood kids smashed everything I put out on the porch once. What can I say I live on the wrong side of town. 😀
Bummer! Kids these days. Actually, I knew some kids when I was growing up that smashed a few pumpkins here and there and that was a LONG time ago. 🙂 They were the neighborhood bullies.
Ohhh I have some sage that really needs to be harvested in my garden right now! I guess I know what I’m gonna be doing with it 😀
Thanks Anne! Hope you get a chance to make this.
What an amazing soup! The combination sounds really unusual, but definitely delicious. I stopped growing sage because I didn’t have enough ideas to use it in the kitchen… now I’m starting to think maybe I should grow it again next year.
Thanks so much Sissi! With patio garden I’m sure you have to be very picking about what you do and don’t grow. I can see your patio so full of chile plants that you have no room for herbs. 🙂
Sweet and savory… one of my favorite flavor combinations. Fabulous soup, MJ!
PS… I have rosemary envy… my potted rosemary plant died a while back and I have yet to replace it. You could string lights on your plant and use it as a Christmas tree. 🙂
Thanks so much Ramona! OH…most people that see our rosemary plants walk away with rosemary envy. 🙂 I like the idea and stringing lights on it.
I admire how you plan for sage through the year. It’s truly one of my favorite herbs and it could not be better matched with pumpkin. I also love fruit in soup – apple, pear and banana are the ones I probably use the most; the loveliest flavor and just the right hint of sweet. My family would love the sausage too! 🙂 Happy Halloween MJ – are you planning for trick-or-treaters tomorrow? I’ve just stalked up on some goodies and am trying really hard not to pay attention to them right now :D.
Thanks Kelly! When you live in the desert, drying sage is so easy so I do it a lot. 🙂 Happy Halloween to you too! No, we don’t do Halloween anymore. It has gotten HUGE in our neighborhood, with literally hundreds of kids. Lots and lots of young families, so we let them take care of it, and us oldies but goodies just turn off the light and watch the World Series. 🙂
This soup has it all going on…sweet, savory and spicy! Yum! I can’t wait to give your recipe a try. Just pinned!
Yep…it has it all. 🙂 Thanks for pinning and I hope you do give it a try.
This looks like a gloriously simple soup. Full of flavor and all good things. Sage is one of my favorites and I am always so happy that it stays around awhile!
I agree. It seems to handle the cooler weather better than most herbs. I usually still have some fresh sage come Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Yum! Sage is one of my favorite fall ingredients and this recipe looks fantastic – love it!
For the fall, sage is also my favorite. Tarragon is my anytime favorite. 🙂 Thanks Sarah!
I have a pumpkin just waiting to be made into soup… meanwhile it’s a decoration. Adding apple & sage to the soup sounds like a great idea!
Time to turn that decoration into a meal. 🙂 Thanks Mae!
Love the color on this soup, MJ! And the fruit/sausage combo sounds interesting indeed.
Thanks so much Viviane!
A really delicious soup and so seasonal with pumpkin and apples. And love the addition of andouille to take it to the next level. I do not use sage a lot, I need to learn more about it and incorporate it more into my recipes.
Yep, the andouille does take it to the next level and what a level it is. 🙂 You do need to give sage a try. It’s like tarragon in that it has such a distinctly different flavor from other herbs and what a wonderful flavor it is. I like to fry whole leaves and top soups and salads with them. Thanks for your comments and for pinning Evelyne!
At first glance this looked like a Mulligatawny soup. So pretty and I love all the flavors you have going on in it. I’m printing this off to make. I think my family will enjoy it.
Thanks so much Vicki! Hope you and your family enjoy!
This looks really good and it’s getting to be that soup time of year again. I will definitely try this, but I think I will use cushaw instead of pumpkin. It should do just as well but not as pronounced a flavor as pumpkin. I’ll let you know. Last 2 years I couldn’t find cushaw. I kept bugging the produce manager at one of the markets about it and so this year they have literally piles of them and at the cheapest price I have ever seen. I’m looking for more ways to use all the cushaw I’m buying and this recipe looks very promising.
Hey Nads! I know how much you love cushaw and your cushaw dishes are awesome! It should work great in place of pumpkin. If YOU have a hard finding cushaw where you, you can only imagine how hard it is for me to find it. It’s impossible! Let me know how it turns out. XOXOX
It’s been torrential rain since about midnight last night. The rain stayed at a level of nearly midway up in our yard all morning. Thank goodness the county rebuilt the drainage system this year or the water would probably have gotten in our house. What better on a dank rainy day than a pot of thick warm soup. This one hit the make!!! As I said I would, I used cushaw. I’m sure it wasn’t as pronounced a flavor as pumpkin but it was delicious!!! The apple was perfect to add the needed sweetness and the sage was genius. I added a little more at the last minute and it was great. It’s a repeat for dinner and no one is complaining. Is it time to eat yet? It’s dinner time somewhere.
I’ve been watching y’alls weather and MAN…you’re getting A LOT of rain! Glad you aren’t having to deal with flooding. I’m going to start calling you my test kitchen. 🙂 I’m thrilled that everyone enjoyed it and as always, thanks for letting me know. XOXOX
When nothing else returns to the garden, my sage plant keeps coming back. I adore the flavor of sage, it pairs so nicely with squash of every kind. I love the spice you’ve added to this soup too! Andouille is a favorite around our house and it is worthy of more than gumbo. Well done. Yum.
I know what you mean Judy. Sage is so hardy and seems to handle most winters. Thanks Judy!
I had some pumpkin soup (AGAIN) for the lunch :-)) Totally love this winter squash…your soup with sausage and sage looks hearty and very flavoursome, MJ:
I know…it’s the month for pumpkin soups, isn’t it. 🙂 Thanks Angie!
MJ, this soup looks so warming and delicious – a perfect fall soup!
Thanks Amy!
We’ve certainly been eating our fill of pumpkin and winter squash recipes! Had a squash soup tonight that was wonderful. Need to try this pumpkin soup — love the inclusion of andouille. And apples work so well in fall soups, don’t they? Good recipe — thanks.
We certainly get our fill of betacarotene in the fall don’t we?:) I love all of the winter squashes and they are so versatile. Thanks for your comments John!
Oh! I love your herb garden MJ! This is the first year I’ve dried the herbs from my garden. I don’t know why I waited so long! So easy & rewarding too. It’s starting to get cooler and a bowl of steaming hot soup sounds divine.
It’s so easy to grow and dry herbs, that there is just no need to purchase them. Plus they make a beautiful garden. Thanks for the comment Deb! Welcome to herb drying. 🙂
Fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Carol!