The VegHog: Thai inspired pumpkin soup

10 October 2013

Thai inspired pumpkin soup

There probably can't be enough pumpkin recipes for October, so here comes yet another one. A friend of mine actually taught me how to make his thai style spiced pumpkin soup. You probably know that I don't usually use this many spices, but as I was so well instructed this time that it couldn't go wrong. I think you should try this too!

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin

1 onion

2-3 garlic cloves

2-3cm fresh ginger (about the same amount as garlic)

1 small red chili

Cumin powder

Coriander powder

1l water

2tsp Vegetable stock powder

Sesame oil

1 lemongrass stock

3 kaffir lime leaves

160ml coconut cream

2tsp miso or soy sauce

½-1 lime's juice

2tsp palm sugar

Fresh coriander leaves

Method

Fry the chopped onion pieces in sesame oil until they are glossy. Add the finely chopped garlic, ginger and chili and fry for about one minute more. Season with the cumin and coriander powders.

Peel the pumpkin and chop it into cubes and add them into the pot. Glaze them for a while and then add some water and vegetable stock powder.

Pour about half of the coconut cream into the soup. Add the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves and let the soup simmer under the lid at moderate heat. If you are using fresh lemongrass, make sure to chop it very finely.

Season the soup with lime juice, miso (or soy sauce) and palm sugar. Add more water at any time if needed. Chop fresh coriander and add it to the pot towards the end. Coriander leaves are also a good decoration for serving. Remove the kaffir lime leaves and the lemongrass from the soup.

Once the pumpkin is soft, puree the soup and taste if any seasoning needs to be added. I added rest of the coconut cream to mine. It depends a bit which taste is dominating at that stage and of course the sweetness of the pumpkin also impacts things. I also didn't want to make mine too spicy in terms of the heat, but if you like chili, feel free to add more.