Asian Pumpkin & Coconut Soup

Asian Pumpkin & Coconut Soup

  Here you go my friends a new recipe from yours truly The Semi-Naked Chef, and it is an absolute corker – this is my Asian Pumpkin & Coconut Soup, and lucky you it comes with free video tutorial. I made this over the weekend, and all the family got stuck in to it in a big way – even baby Jude. As an NB on that one, no chili on his at the end, but the rest of the soup he loved – not bad for a 2 year old.

Here it is in pictorial form – the gorgeous looking and tasting Asian Pumpkin & Coconut Soup. If I were in the UK still, this is what I’d be doing on those cold, wet days as a fantastic Asian comfort food. Warming your cockles before leaving the house to work, or for over the weekend at family times. But here in Singapore not so, because it is full of pumpkin and potato this easily became the main course of the day and hence it being posted in ‘Big Stuff’ – no chilly rain here, so I made a meal of it ha ha!!!

So here comes – Asian Pumpkin & Coconut Soup

The soup recipe – enough for dinner for four here;

• 1 Japanese pumpkin the green skin ones (or equivalent) cut in to 8 slices, de-seeded, but leave skins on;
• 5-6 small white potatoes, cut in to quarters. I scrubbed them and left the skins on for more flavour;
• 5-6 red onions, cut in half, but leave the skins on;
• 1 pint coconut cream;
• 2 pints of water (more if you need more volume);
• 2 chopped chili padi (you can leave this out at this stage and just garnish with chili padi, if you have those who are not a frequenter of the hot stuff);
• 3 teaspoons of finely chopped garlic;
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce;
• 2 tablespoons tom yam paste (yep I cheated and used packet stuff to save time);
• 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice;
• 2 lemon grass stalks. Simply cut the woody top and bottom off, and peel a couple of outer layers away and finely chop;
• 3 teaspoons of grated palm sugar (normal brown sugar will do);
• Olive oil; and
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper.

The garnish for when you have finished;

• Some ripped coriander;
• The thin slices of the young coconut you prepared earlier;
• 2-3 finely chopped chili padi;
• 1 young coconut. Pop the top off, drain the milk and use a small spoon to scoop all the soft white flesh out, slice that in to thin strips;
• Some double cream; and
• Some deep fried shallots (you can buy these in packets).

Pop the pumpkin and red onion on a baking tray. Drizzle all over with Olive oil, and a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. Bash that in the oven at 200 for about 20-30 minutes. The pumpkin should have browned nicely and you should easily be able to poke a fork in it. Use a spoon to scoop all the soft flesh away from the green skin in to a bowl and set aside. Remove all the skins from the onions, pop to a bowl the white sweetly roasted flesh and set aside.

Whilst that was in the oven pop those potatoes in to a pan with some salted water and bring to the boil. Let them bubble away 10-15 minutes until soft, again when the fork easily goes all the way in. Drain and set aside in a bowl.

OK ready to go, ready to make Asian Pumpkin & Coconut Soup?

Take a soup pot and pop it on the heat. Drizzle in a fair bit of Olive oil, the coconut cream, the roasted onions, the lemon grass and garlic. Bring that to a fast boil, whilst stirring so as not to let the coconut cream burn. In now with the pumpkin, potatoes, tom yam paste, water, sugar, fish sauce, lemon juice. Again bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer and let that go for about 20 minutes – occasional stir.

Once that is done she’s off the heat. Take your hand blender and blitz the soup in the pot. No more lumps please, this is soup not stew. Once done, ladle in to individual bowls. Now garnish time.

In to each bowl add a dollop of cream, a sprinkle of fried shallots, a few ripped coriander leaves, a few slithers of the young coconut and the chopped chili padi. Look at those colours!!!

Right in the Thai zone this one, but I have generically badged it Asian Pumpkin & Coconut Soup. So as you watch the recipe you’ll see fish sauce, chili padi, sugar, coriander, lemon juice, coconut – all very stable Thai ingredients. So you could this by another name I suppose but hey it’s a soup with various bits in it that are of Asian origin, with a focus on Thailand – call it what you want ha ha. But please ENJOY!!!