Thai Pumpkin and Coconut Soup
A creamy coconut soup with all my favourite Thai flavours.
I think the best smell in the whole world is Makrut lime. I have a kaffir lime tree in my backyard and I love crushing the leaves in my hand and releasing the strong, vibrant and fresh aroma. It’s delicious sliced thinly in salads, steeped in a panna cotta and of course flavouring spicy Thai curries. It is yummy in both sweet and savoury food - basically I can’t get enough of it! This is a super simple and yummy way to use my hero ingredient.
I love this soup by itself, but it’s the contrast between the creamy soup and the crunchy turmeric coconut topping that really make it special. I was first introduced to this toasted coconut goodness by a lovely women Kasia who was living at Commonground – for those of you who don’t know Commonground is the community I grew up in. She used toasted coconut as a side to curry. I had long forgotten about her yummy culinary creation until I was thinking that this pumpkin soup recipe needed a little something extra. I am a big fan of a crunchy topping for any soup. And it goes perfectly, so a big thanks Kasia!
I like to roast the pumpkin first before adding it to the soup. It does require a little bit more effort but I think the extra flavour and richness you get from roasting it is worth it. But feel free to skip this step if you can’t be bothered, it will still taste great! I use Japanese Pumpkin as I think it has the most flavor and best texture of the typical pumpkins available.
I use a high-powered blender to get this soup to a silky super smooth texture. If you don’t have, you can use a bar mixer of food processor, but the lemongrass in particular may not blend completely.
Thai Pumpkin and Coconut Soup
Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours
Serves: 4
Dietary guidelines: This soup is vegan and gluten free. A FODMAP friendly variation is provided.
Ingredients
¼ of Japanese Pumpkin (600g approx.)
1 brown onion
3 tablespoons of olive oil or coconut oil
1 “thumb” of ginger (25g) finely chopped or grated
2 large garlic cloves finely chopped
1 long red chilli
1 lemongrass stalk – white part only thinly sliced
4 Makrut lime leaves stem removed
4 coriander roots washed and roughly chopped
2 stock cubes or 750ml of stock
1 cup of coconut cream – try at get the Kara brand
Coconut turmeric topping
1 teaspoon of turmeric
3/4 cup of shredded coconut
2 teaspoons of coconut oil
1 teaspoon of maple syrup
Salt to taste
Optional extras for garnish: Coconut cream, Makrut lime leaves thinly sliced, spring onion thinly sliced, coriander leaves roughly chopped or chopped fresh chilli
Method
For the pumpkin: Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper. Cut the skin off the pumpkin and chop into medium sized chunks. Place in a bowl with half the olive oil (1 ½ tablespoons), season and mix well. Lay the pumpkin out in a single layer on the baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It may need to be longer depending on your oven. You want them to be starting to develop some golden colour around the edges but not going brown. Set aside once it’s ready.
For the soup base: Whilst the pumpkin is cooking, start making the soup. Roughly chop the onion and fry with the remaining oil on a medium heat in a large pot. Cook for about five minutes stirring often. Turn the heat down low and add the garlic, lime leaves, ginger, chilli, coriander root and lemongrass. Cook for about another ten minutes, stirring often. If it starts sticking too much to the bottom of the pan you can add some more oil or turn the heat down even lower. It’s important not to brown the ingredients too much but you want to make sure they have a time to cook out and release their yummy flavor.
After about ten minutes, add the pumpkin and the stock (or the stock cubes and 3 cups of water). Simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes. I suggest preparing the topping whilst the soup is simmering away. After 20 minutes add the coconut cream. Now it’s time to blend it into a nice creamy consistency. I use a high powered blender but be careful not to overfill as the hot contents may explode all over you – I speak from experience! Taste the soup at this point and season if necessary. The soup is now ready to serve with the turmeric coconut topping and any or all of the other topping suggestions.
To make the coconut topping: Heat the coconut oil in a frypan over a medium heat. Once the oil has melted, add the coconut and turmeric. Cook for a few minutes, stirring often until it starts to change colour a little. At this point add the maple syrup and and cook for another minutes or so until its developed a nice golden yellow colour. season to taste ad set aside.
FODMAP friendly variation: Simply replace the garlic with garlic oil and the onion with a large handful of chopped green spring onion.
