Pumpkin soup

Pumpkin soup

45 min
Pumpkins are a wonderful fruit to use in soups when they are in season. Served with a bit of ice-cold sour cream and fresh, green coriander leaves, this vibrant, yellow ginger pumpkin soup looks like a dish you might enjoy at a restaurant. Try our easy pumpkin soup recipe next time you would like to prepare a dish that is decorative, tasty, and quick to prepare.
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Instructions

  • Cut the peeled pumpkin into cubes. Remove the outer leaves of the lemongrass stalks and cut the soft part finely. Cut the fresh ginger into thin strips.
  • Let the butter melt at high heat in a saucepan but make sure it does not begin to brown. Sauté the pumpkin, lemongrass, and ginger at medium heat for about 5 minutes as you stir occasionally – you do not want it to brown.
  • Add the vegetable broth and bay leaves, bring the soup to a boil, and let it boil with the lid on at low heat for around 20 minutes.
  • Remove the bay leaves and blend the soup until it is smooth. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper and season to taste.
  • Garnish the pumpkin soup with a spoonful of crème fraiche and some fresh coriander leaves. Serve with bread.
Enjoy!
Tips

Peeling a pumpkin for pumpkin soup is not too difficult. Start by cutting off the top and bottom so you get two flat surfaces that make it easier to manage. Now use either a knife or peeler to remove the skin. Make sure to cut away from yourself.

Tips

After removing the skin, slice the pumpkin in half and clean it by removing its seeds and fibrous strings. This is most easily done with a large metal spoon or an ice cream scoop. You can then cut the halves into smaller pieces to make cutting them into cubes easier.

Questions about pumpkin soup

This recipe for pumpkin soup makes it incredibly easy to make a warming meal full of Thai-inspired flavours. Have a look at some of the most frequently asked questions about the dish below to learn more.

How to make pumpkin soup?
Making pumpkin soup from scratch does not take long and the result is a creamy and tasty meal that is sure to warm you up. Sauté pumpkin, lemongrass, and ginger before adding vegetable broth and bay leaves and letting the soup boil. After removing the leaves, blend the soup to get a smooth and velvety consistency. Season it with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, garnish with crème fraiche and coriander and serve it with bread for a hearty meal.
How long does pumpkin soup last in the fridge?
Homemade pumpkin soup will keep for 3-4 days if refrigerated properly. After it has cooled, transfer it to portion-sized airtight containers or make sure to wrap the bowl or saucepan it is in with cling film. When you want to enjoy some of the leftovers, reheat only the amount you mean to eat as reheating the entire batch over and over will increase the risk of bacterial growth.
How to thicken pumpkin soup?
The easiest way to ensure a creamy pumpkin soup if it is looking a bit watery is to add a couple of tablespoons of wheat flour or cornflour mixed with water. Make sure to incorporate it by whisking until the mixture is smooth and bring the soup to a boil after adding it. If you follow these tips, you can successfully thicken any soup without it affecting the taste whatsoever.
Can you freeze pumpkin soup?
Any leftover pumpkin soup may be frozen for up to 3 months. Let it cool before transferring it to airtight containers. Choose portion-sized containers for ease and leave room at the top for the liquid to expand as it freezes. A couple of centimetres should be enough. Let it thaw overnight before reheating it in the microwave or a saucepan.
What to serve with pumpkin soup?
To turn any soup, including this, into a filling meal, serve it with a couple of slices of your favourite bread. To make it look as enticing as it is tasty, garnish with a combination of pumpkin soup toppings like crème fraiche and fresh coriander leaves. These lovely ingredients add freshness and provide a cooling feeling to complement the spicy soup.
What does pumpkin soup taste like?
Depending on your choice of pumpkin and spices, a pumpkin soup may vary in flavour profiles ranging from sweet and earthy to zingy and spicy each time you make it. With flavour-packed fresh ingredients like ginger and lemongrass, our rendition of the popular soup type veers towards the latter. In any case, remember to season it with salt and pepper to make the flavours pop.

Ingredients

Pumpkin soup:
Peeled pumpkins, for instance, Halloween (field) pumpkin, Hokkaido, or butternut squash
900 g
Lemon grass
2 stalks
Fresh ginger, peeled
40 g
Butter
40 g
Vegetable broth
1½ l
Bay leaves
2
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tbsp
Coarse salt
1½ tsp
Freshly churned pepper
Garnished with:
Sour cream, 18%
250 ml
Fresh coriander leaves
Served with:
Wholemeal bread
300 g

Pumpkin soup bursting with flavours

A simple pumpkin soup with sweet and earthy flavours lends itself well to experimenting with flavour profiles from different cuisines. In this recipe, we have chosen to find inspiration in the immensely popular Thai cuisine by adding lemongrass and ginger and garnishing with coriander.

Our recipe also calls for the use of bay leaves, which infuse the dish with a subtle bitterness that prevents it from becoming too heavy, and freshly squeezed lemon juice to brighten it as well. This combination of ingredients results in a flavour-packed soup and a delicious, multi-faceted eating experience.

Thai-inspired with ginger and lemongrass

As mentioned, this recipe is heavily influenced by Thai cuisine. The addition of lemongrass gives it a wonderfully fresh, citrussy flavour with hints of mint, while the ginger brings a pronounced, warm spice flavour with a peppery taste to the soup. 

The sharpness of both the ginger and lemongrass complement the mellow sweetness of the pumpkin and their aroma gives this ginger pumpkin soup a terrific, delightful smell that will fill up your kitchen as you cook it.

Serve with sour cream and herbs

This recipe is not complete without a selection of delicious toppings, and a zingy pumpkin soup goes well with ice-cold sour cream and fresh coriander leaves.

The creamy sour cream as well as the citrussy coriander add a layer of freshness. They also leave a cooling sensation on the palate which works nicely with the warming flavours of this pumpkin and ginger soup.

Serve the dish with bread, for example, wholemeal bread, sourdough bread, or even a decorative, round sunflower seed bread to complete the meal.

Choose the best pumpkin

The best pumpkins for soups are firm and hard in the flesh as varieties with softer flesh tend to make soups watery rather than thick and creamy. While you can, of course, opt for the Halloween one, also known as a field pumpkin, you will get a more flavourful result if you choose a butternut squash or Hokkaido.

A Hokkaido pumpkin soup will have scrumptious, sweet nutty undertones. One made with butternut squash will, too, as it tastes similar to sweet potatoes. As a bonus, the thin skin of these pumpkins does not need to be removed, making the whole thing easy to work with.

Regardless of which variety you select, seek out hard, heavy, and blemish-free pumpkins that make a hollow sound when you knock on them.

If all this talk about pumpkins has made you curious about what else you can cook with them, we suggest having a look at our equally delicious recipe for roast pumpkin salad.

Make a spicy pumpkin soup

To add some heat to this flavourful dish, add either fresh chilli or chilli flakes or powder to it. The kick this will bring to your homemade pumpkin soup is sure to make your tastebuds tingle!

Aromatic spices like turmeric, cumin, and cinnamon are also popular in Thai cuisine and will be great choices for spicy Thai-inspired soups like this one. If you do not want to spend too much time making the perfect mix of herbs or spices for pumpkin soup with ginger and lemongrass, you can easily opt for preprepared ones like the Indian garam masala or the Chinese five spice mix.