My favorite time to cook is during the autumn. This is when I harvest the bulk of my garden treasures and am able to cook delicious stews. The garden is modest and usually produces fruitful harvests of beans, peas, corn, squash, melons, and herbs. Getting out in the garden this year has been difficult as we navigate new responsibilities and harsher summers, but stuffing fingers into loamy soil is invigorating.
This Pumpkin Chicken Noodle Soup recipe was born after a rough year of illnesses in 2025. Out of both convenience and need (Hubby and I were homebound and needed to save money), I experimented to make a soup that would soothe us as we worked through our infections.
I felt a bit cheeky throwing whatever we had on hand into my Dutch oven. A Wiccan friend of mine passed along a funny quote where she told me, “Soup is Witchcraft. We put plants, spices, and dead animals into a cauldron and follow the instructions in an ancient book.”
I bent over laughing and now think of this quote every time I make a soup. I even felt a little spark of magic creating this one.
We usually make our own pesto sauce out of the Thai and Genovese basil we grow. Instead of using pine nuts, we use pistachios; it is both cheaper and tastier. We also used the fresh lemon thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and pinkeye purple hull peas from the garden. If you can get a hold of fresh pumpkin or squash and puree it yourself, even better.
Even though our stew was fairly local with some heirloom ingredients, use the ingredients available to you if you decide to try out this recipe. Use store bought varieties of everything you cannot grab from your yard. No hard feelings or judgements. For extra flavor, I recommend smoked paprika and applewood smoked sea salt. If not, regular old sea salt or Kosher salt will do.
The color of your soup may differ depending on the kind of pesto sauce you use. Sometimes our soup is green. Other times, it is burnt orange. Yet, that is the magic of cooking from scratch; it is almost never the exact same every time.
Ingredients
- 1 lbs (450g) chicken (breasts, thighs, or drumsticks)
- 2 tbsp paprika
- 1 bunch fresh lemon thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1 bunch fresh marjoram
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large sweet onion (roughly chopped)
- 8 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
- 2 green onion (sliced)
- 2 carrots (peeled and sliced)
- 9oz/255g fresh sweet corn
- 32oz (900ml) bone stock or chicken broth
- 15oz/425g pumpkin puree or squash
- 1 cup/200g pesto sauce
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup/200g pinkeye purple hull peas
- 1 cup/150g egg noodles
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 225°F/110°C.
- Wash and pat dry the chicken. Season it with the paprika and a generous amount of salt and pepper.
- Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a large Dutch oven.
- Sear the chicken on medium heat until brown on both sides and cooked through. Remove the chicken from the heat and set it aside in a warm place.
- Heat another 2 tbsp of olive oil in the same Dutch oven and sauté the onions, garlic, and herbs on medium heat until fragrant and translucent. Add the carrots and corn, and sauté for another 10 minutes on low to medium heat. Season with salt and pepper and stir.
- Add the stock, pumpkin, vinegar, and bay leaves. Shred the chicken and add it to the soup.
- Bring the soup to a simmer. Cover the Dutch oven and place it into the oven. Cook the soup for 1 hour.
- Remove the soup from the oven, then carefully stir in the peas, egg noodles, and the 2 last tbsp of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Replace the lid and cook the soup in the oven for another 30 to 45 minutes or until the noodles are fully cooked.
- Allow the soup to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
