Recipe: Japanese Pumpkin Soup

When I am searching for a unique soup I always go to my NY Times Bread and Soup Cookbook. I found one but have no idea if it's what you're looking for. If this is not what you want, I found one in my Victory Garden Cookbook which could probably be adapted. I'll post this one since it actually has both spinach and pumpkin in it!!! It's called "Japanese Pumpkin Soup."

1 1/2 pounds pumpkin 1 cup lettuce, chopped
1 large potato 1 leek, trimmed
1 tsp salt 3 tbsp. butter
5 cups water 1/2 cup rice
4 cups heavy cream 1 cup young fresh shelled peas
1/3 cup sorrel, chopped 2 tbsp. parsley, minced
1/2 cup spinach chopped

Peel and slice the pumpkin and potato. Put these in a saucepan, and add the water and salt. Simmer until tender. Puree these vegetables and their liquid in a blender. Stir in the heavy cream. Saute the sorrel, spinach, lettuce and leek in the butter until the leek is transparent. Do not brown. Stir the sauteed vegetables into the pumpkin mixture along with the rice and peas. Simmer for 10 minutes. Serve hot, sprinkled with the minced parsley.

If a "cream" style soup isn't what you had in mind, let me know and I'll post the "broth" based soup.