Best Spices for Pumpkin Soup: What Each Does

Pumpkin soup usually goes one of two ways: savory and herbal, or warm-spiced. A University of Tennessee Extension recipe takes the herbal road, with dried thyme and poultry seasoning over an onion, carrot and celery base, finished with heavy cream.¹ The Food Hero curried pumpkin soup goes warm, with curry powder, nutmeg and a little honey.² And one pumpkin soup, Haiti’s soup joumou, has its own spot on UNESCO’s heritage list.

At a glance

Seasoning	Job in the pot	Notes
Onion	Savory base	In both recipes²¹
Celery and carrot	Aromatic base	UT Extension recipe¹
Thyme	Woodsy, sharp herbal note	1/2 tsp dried in the UT recipe¹
Poultry seasoning	Sage-and-thyme warmth	1/2 tsp in the UT recipe¹³
Curry powder	Warm, earthy spice	1 tsp in the Food Hero recipe²
Nutmeg	Sweet warmth	1/4 tsp in the Food Hero recipe²
Black pepper	Gentle bite	1/4 tsp in the Food Hero recipe²
Garlic	Savory depth	Optional; in neither recipe
Broth, cream or evaporated milk	Body and richness	Both recipes²¹

Two baseline recipes

	UT Extension, Bedford County¹	Food Hero, via MedlinePlus (8 servings)²
Pumpkin	1 can (15 oz)	1 can (15 oz) solid-pack
Aromatics	1/4 cup onion, 1/4 cup carrot, 2 stalks celery	1/2 cup onion, 1/2 lb mushrooms
Fat	3 tbsp butter	2 tbsp margarine
Seasoning	1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning, 1/2 tsp dried thyme	1 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tbsp honey
Liquid	1 can (10 1/2 oz) chicken broth, 1 cup heavy cream	3 cups vegetable broth, 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
Garnish	none	Fresh or frozen chives (optional)

These are the publishers’ recipes, not ours.

The core seasonings and what each one does

Onion and the aromatic base

Both recipes use onion, and the UT recipe adds carrot and celery. Pick whatever onion you like. Some cooks add onion at more than one point to layer the flavor. Neither recipe does, and we found no test of it.

Thyme and poultry seasoning: the savory herbs

The UT recipe stirs in 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme and 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning with the pumpkin and salt.¹ Thyme has a sharp, savory taste. Poultry seasoning pushes further in the same direction. McCormick’s culinary blend lists thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg.³

America’s Test Kitchen counts thyme as a hearty herb to add early, since its flavor compounds are somewhat more heat-stable.⁴ The University of Delaware’s guide suggests moderate amounts of thyme, 1 to 2 teaspoons for 6 servings.⁵ Pumpkin soup doesn’t simmer for hours, so adding it early is a sensible default. See cooking with thyme, too much thyme and sage.

Curry powder and nutmeg: the warm-spiced direction

The Food Hero recipe stirs a teaspoon of curry powder in with the flour and adds 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg with the pumpkin and milk.² Curry powder is a blend with no fixed recipe. The USDA’s purchasing specification lists turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger and cardamom as ingredients it should include, with no proportions.⁶ See curry powder, nutmeg and too much nutmeg.

Some cooks grab pumpkin pie spice here. Neither recipe uses it.

Garlic: optional

Neither recipe uses garlic. If you add fresh garlic, America’s Test Kitchen says to put it in after the onion has softened, because garlic added too early can burn and turn acrid and bitter.⁷ See garlic and garlic powder.

Black pepper

The Food Hero recipe uses 1/4 teaspoon pepper.² The UT recipe skips pepper entirely.¹ Plenty of people say fresh-ground is hotter or more lemony than pre-ground, but we found no measurement. See black pepper.

Broth, cream and evaporated milk

Broth makes up most of the liquid in both: chicken broth in the UT version, vegetable broth in the Food Hero one. Each gets its richness from two places, butter and heavy cream in the UT soup, margarine and evaporated milk in the Food Hero soup.²¹ Taste for salt once the broth is in.

Soup joumou: Haiti’s pumpkin soup

Soup joumou, the pumpkin soup Haitians eat on January 1, Independence Day, was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. UNESCO describes it as made with giraumon, a variety of pumpkin, plus vegetables, plantains, meat, pasta and spices, but it doesn’t say which spices.⁸ See Haitian spices.

Pumpkin seed spices for the seeds you scoop out
Spices for butternut squash and sweet potato spices
Tomato soup spices and vegetable soup spices
The master list of herbs and spices

“Pumpkin Soup”, Seasonal Eating, UT Extension Bedford County. bedford.tennessee.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
“Curried Pumpkin Soup”, Food Hero recipe, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine. medlineplus.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
“Poultry Seasoning”, McCormick Culinary product page. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Liz Bomze, “Our Guide to Fresh Herbs”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2019. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
“Using Herbs and Spices”, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, revised 2025. udel.edu · Reference work ↩
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩
Liz Bomze, “Why You Should Wait to Add Garlic”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2023. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
“Joumou soup”, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, inscribed 2021. ich.unesco.org · Regulator ↩

The Best Spices for Pumpkin Soup: Thyme, Curry, Nutmeg and the Aromatics Under Them