Thai-ish pumpkin soup
Is it too late to sneak in a soup recipe before spring? We think not. And not just any old soup either; a smooth, silky pumpkin one that skews Thai. With plenty of natural sweetness, pumpkin is an excellent foil for the sweet-sour-spicy-salty flavour formula that gives Thai food so much tasty depth. Don’t be put off by all the ‘or to tastes’ in the ingredient list after things like curry paste and fish sauce; we’re not copping out, honest. We encourage you to taste as you go and follow your instincts and inclinations with the overall flavour. Balance out the various elements according to your own preferences; some peeps like things a bit sour-er (shove in more lime!), saltier (glug in that fish sauce!), or spicier (heave in another tablespoon of so of curry paste and add more chopped chilli at the end).
We know we’ve been dismissive of purchased pastes in the past but they do have their place. If you can’t find yellow curry paste, which gets its colour from turmeric, is slightly milder than other Thai curry pastes, and is commonly used in Southern and Central Thailand in fish curries, use red instead. We guess you could use green but suspect you‘ll end up with something aesthetically unpleasant; what does orange (pumpkin) and green (the paste) make? Grunge brown? Yeah nah, no thanks. This will serve 4 hungry soup fanatics.
MAKES about 2 litres (8 cups)
60ml (¼ cup) peanut oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1½ tbsp finely chopped ginger
5 garlic cloves, finely grated or chopped
90g (⅓ cup) Thai yellow curry paste, or to taste
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised and tied in a knot
1.5kg pumpkin, peeled, seeded and chopped
1.25 litres (5 cups) chicken or vegetable stock, approximately
3 tbsp chopped palm sugar, or to taste
80ml (⅓ cup) fish sauce, or to taste
juice of 2 limes, or to taste
Toppings
coconut cream
sliced red chilli
finely sliced makrut lime leaf
finely sliced lemongrass
lime halves
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the curry paste and lemongrass and stir for another 1-2 minutes to cook the paste out a little, then add the pumpkin and stir to coat. Cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat to medium-low, then cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure the pumpkin does not catch on the base, until the pumpkin is softened.
Add the stock, then bring to a simmer. Cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes or until the pumpkin is very tender. Remove the lemongrass and discard, then use a stick blender, regular blender or food processor to puree the soup. Add a little more stock if it’s too thick. Return the soup to the pan and bring to a simmer, then add the palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice and stir to mix well. Taste, then season with pepper and extra fish sauce and lime juice, if necessary. Divide among large bowls, swirl some coconut cream into each, then serve with the remaining toppings to add, to taste.
