Thai Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Thai Pumpkin Soup has a smooth and creamy texture with a sweet and spicy flavor that makes it the perfect dish for lunch or dinner. It is easy to prepare and tastes simply delicious.

With just a few ingredients and some basic cooking skills, you can prepare a dish that will give you a taste to remember.

Ingredients

Here is the list of ingredients to make delicious Thai Pumpkin Pie Soup.

• Pumpkin or butternut 2 kg or 4.4 lbs(whole pumpkin or butternut, with seed in and skin on)
• Thai Red Curry Paste. 5 tablespoons. There are various options for this on the market. Some notable brands include Maeploy, Aroy-D, Namjai, and Thai Kitchen. You can find this at the nearest Asian store.
• Vegetable stock 1 liter. You can easily make your own vegetable stock with onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and herbs and spices or you can buy a readymade stock from the shop such as Swanson’s Vegetable Broth, Image Organic Low-Sodium Vegetable Broth, Pacific Organic Low-Sodium Vegetable Broth, etc.
• 1 large onion or 5-6 shallots, chopped finely.
• 5 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 400 ml/14 oz or one can of coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon of grated ginger
• Salt, as needed
• Black pepper/chili powder, as needed
• 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil. You can use soyabean oil, mustard oil, sunflower oil, or olive oil.
• Coriander leaves, lime juice, and hot sauce for garnishing.

Cooking Method

Here are the steps for making Thai Pumpkin soup.

• Step 1: Peel the skin of the butternut or pumpkin. Also, scoop out the seeds and meat from the inside. Then cut the vegetable into small one-inch cubes. Cutting them into cubes helps to cook them easily. Butternut and pumpkin both work with this recipe.
  
• Step 2: Finely chop the onion or the shallots, peel, and mince the garlic cloves. Get all the other ingredients ready and close to the stove.
   
• Step 3: Put a large pot on the stove and heat that up to medium-high. Put the vegetable oil in the pan and heat it up. When the vegetable oil is heated, throw in the onion or shallots and the garlic. Keep stirring to release the juice from the onion and garlic. Keep cooking for 2-3 minutes or until they are soft and translucent. Add the grated ginger as well. Decrease the heat if the starts to burn.
  
• Step 4: Add the curry paste and cook for another 2-3 minutes. You can add a dash of water if the cooking starts to burn.
  
• Step 5: Add the pumpkin or the butternut cubes to the pot and stir them well to coat all the vegetables in the spice mixture. Stir for 2 minutes.
  
• Step 6: Add the vegetable stock and the coconut milk to the pot and stir everything well. Cover the pot with a lid and put the heat on medium. Add salt and pepper. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or up until you can very easily push a fork through the butternut or pumpkin. Stir from time to time to avoid anything from sticking to the pan. Check the taste to make sure the salt and pepper are up to your taste.
  
• Step 7: Turn off the heat. Use a hand blender to blend everything into a smooth paste. You can also transfer the whole cooking to a blender and blend it there.
  
• Step 8: Pour the soup into a bowl and garnish with coriander leaves, browned onions, or the garnish of your choice.

Important Notes:

Do not substitute Thai curry paste with anything else. This ingredient is key to making an authentic Thai pumpkin soup. You can use store-bought vegetable broth but making your own vegetable broth really adds to the flavor. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Make Vegetable Broth?

A basic vegetable stock or broth only has a few ingredients and can be made very easily. Use aromatic vegetables like onions, garlic, carrots, celery, spring onions, shallots, etc. Roughly chop them after washing them well. You do not have to peel the vegetables.

Fill up a pot with 10-12 cups or about 3 liters of water. Throw in the vegetables and turn the heat on high. When the water starts boiling, turn down the heat to low to low-medium and let it simmer for 60-90 minutes or one to one and a half hours.

Strain the vegetables and you will be left with excellent-quality vegetable stock or vegetable broth. You can store this stock in containers and refrigerate them.

How to Make Coconut Milk at Home?

Coconut milk can be made at home in just a few steps. 

Step 1: Grate a coconut. You can use a fork or a spoon to scrape the inside of the coconut. You will need about 4 cups for this recipe.

Step 2: Get a blender and put the grated coconut in it along with one cup of cold water. And blend at high speed.

Step 3: Get a large bowl and a cheesecloth. Put the blended coconut on the cloth and strain the liquid. This liquid is coconut milk.

Step 4: Put the coconut that remains in the cloth into the blender again and blend it with a cup of cold water.

Step 5: Repeat Step 2 to Step 4 a few times to get most of the coconut milk out from the coconut.

You can store this for up to a month in your fridge.

Where Can I Find Thai Red Curry Paste?

You can find Thai Red Curry Paste at your nearest Asian shop. You can order it online from Amazon as well. Thai Red Curry Paste comes in gluten-free options as well. Many Asian recipes include Thai Red Curry Paste in them so it is a valuable addition to your pantry.