Thai Curried Pumpkin Soup

Recipe Review: Creamy Pumpkin soup with Thai spices. Great mixing of flavors make a smooth velvety soup.

Oh come on, by now you must know that I can't resist a pumpkin recipe. I was making Chicken Lettuce Wraps and wanted to make a soup to go with them. I just got a new immersion blender for my birthday and was itching to try it. Plus this seemed like a pretty simple soup that I could whip up on a weeknight.

I highly recommend the cuisinart smartstick hand blender it worked great, and comes with a mini chopper and whisk attachment. If you don't have an immersion blender go get this one from crate and barrell!

My grocery store didn't specifically have Thai chilies or even "Red Chilies" like the recipe called for so I went with red jalapenos, and a Serrano pepper. (I like Serrano's because they give that after burn) I used olive oil for sauteing the garlic and shallots, but added in a few drops of sesame oil because I had it. I also just used canned pumpkin, and it turned out fine. Trader Joe's sells Organic Pumpkin Puree which has great flavor.



Thai Curried Pumpkin Soup

Serves 4-6

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 shallots, chopped

4 green onions, chopped

2 small red chili peppers, finely diced
2 stalks lemongrass cut into 2 in pieces
1 tablespoon peeled and chopped ginger
1 tablespoon curry powder

2 cups chicken stock

2 cans pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 large bunch of fresh basil leaves
1 lime
ground red pepper to taste



time out: how cute is my stock pot? so freaking cute

 

In a medium saucepan (or a super cute small stock pot) heat oil and butter. Cook garlic, shallots, green onions, chilies, lemon grass, and ginger in oil until fragrant. Stir in chicken stock, coconut milk, pumpkin, and torn basil leaves, bring to a boil and cook till soup thickens, about 15 minutes. Season with curry powder while soup cooks, and adjust seasonings as you go, adding ground red pepper.

Before serving use immersion blender to blend soup, if you don't plan on blending the soup just fish out the lemongrass its sorta tough and stringy (so I'm told) you could even use a loose leaf tea infuser so you get the lemongrass flavor and its easy to remove before serving.

printable recipe

I garnished with fried ginger stalks, and lime slices. The soup turned out to be very similar to a butternut squash soup that my family friend makes every year for Thanksgiving. Probably because I went pretty heavy on the ginger and lime flavors. Next time I'll add in more lemon grass and try to find Thai chilies, or maybe shell out for Thai seasoning spice.

Ok next up are the Chicken Lettuce Wraps that go with this!