Pumpkins are a classic fall ingredient. When you think of pumpkin soup I’ll bet you’re thinking about a warm autumn meal, despite living in a country that doesn’t really have an autumn season! My seasons in Kerala go a little something like this- pleasant, hot, really hot, burn-my-skin hot, wet, really wet, annual flood season and back to don’t-need-a-fan-at-night pleasant! Since we’re so close to the equator, we don’t really get that fall season but from the months of October to January it gets ever so slightly chilly and thats when I break out the soup recipes!
Pumpkins are not my favourite. When I think of pumpkins I think less of halloween and pumpkin pies and more of that awful kaddu sabzi I avoided like the plague in boarding school. However, since I am now regretfully an adult, I decided I must broaden my horizons and expand my palette. I had this amazing soup at a friends place many years ago and I was surprised at how it tasted nothing like kaddu ki sabzi. The spices and stock in the recipe add a whole other dimension to the soup.
Speedy Soup in No Time!
*Part of my work with Wonderchef involves testing their products and developing recipes for their online blog. While I receive the products free of cost, I am not obligated to review them in a positive light on my website. All opinions expressed are my own.
On a good day, this soup takes me around 45 minutes. Chop up the vegetables, prepare the spices, boil it all, let it cool, blend it smooth, heat it up again and serve. It’s a whole process. Now, there are a ton of soup makers out there but I always thought they were bit inessential. I mean, a pot and a mixer can do the job just fine so do I really need to invest in a soup maker? The answer, as it turned out, was YES! Full disclosure though, I received the Wonderchef Soup Maker for free. However, as you may have noticed, I don’t always post about brands, only when I really like something. So yes, this is going to be my very first product endorsement!
Soup Maker: The Good
While The Wonderchef Automatic Soup Maker can also make compotes and smoothies, my main focus was on how well it made soups. I am a soup junkie and a nice big bowl of soup is all I need for dinner on most evenings. So I set out to test the absolute basics with one of my favourite soup recipes that I’ve been making for ages. I must say I was thoroughly impressed with the results. There’s no doubt that it’s time saving (it took exactly 21 minutes!) but what really impressed me was how smooth the soup turned out. Which was surprising considering how small the blade seemed! The machine is also super easy to clean since the blade lifts right out, unlike a mixer.
Soup Maker: The Bad
One downside to most soup makers though is the size. The minimum quantity is usually enough for 5-6 portions of soup. That’s way too much when you’re cooking for two! Unless you’re going to make a bunch and freeze for later of course. I would have also loved a sauté function since ingredients like onions and garlic always taste better when sautéed and added to recipe but since I’m saving so much time on the other steps I can live without that feature.
Winter or summer, soups are always a fantastic addition to your meal plan. This pumpkin soup works well with pumpkins at all stages of ripeness. The riper the pumpkin, the sweeter the soup. I also like to grate my ginger directly into the soup maker for maximum flavour. While you can definitely add raw ginger directly into the soup maker I would highly recommend sautéing the onions and garlic in some oil first. Both onions and garlic need to be cooked to get rid of their raw bite. A quick sauté over medium heat is all that they need to impart the right flavour to your soup. While the recipe calls for kaffir lime leaves, you can leave that out if you don’t have any. We put in a new Kaffir Lime tree a few months ago and since then I’ve been using the leaves every chance I get!
Garnishing is the last and most fun step of soup preparation! Toasted pumpkin seeds, coconut milk, finely chopped kaffir lime leaves, sliced red chillies, peanuts and finely chopped coriander are all great options. Check out my Soups 101 post for ideas on garnishing! My Burnt Garlic Corn Soup is another fantastic recipe you can try out in a soup maker!
Pumpkin Soup
Equipment
- Soup Maker (Optional)
Ingredients
- 480 grams Pumpkin (chopped into 1 inch pieces) about 3 ½ cups
- 1 Green Chilli
- 1 tbsp Grated Ginger
- 1 Onion medium
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- 3 cups Vegetable Stock
- Salt as needed
- 2 Kaffir Lime Leaves
- ½ cup Coconut Cream
Instructions
- Begin by preparing your vegetables. Chop the pumpkin into 1 inch cubes. Roughly chop the onions and crush the garlic with the back of the knife. Grate the ginger. Discard the centre vein and roughly tear up the kafir lime leaves.
- In a small pan, add the oil and once hot add the onions. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
- Add the pumpkin, ginger, chilli, kaffir lime leaves, onions and garlic to the soup maker along with 3 cups of stock.
- Close the soup maker and select the smooth mode.
- Let the soup maker do its thing for 21 minutes!
- Once the soup maker is done, open lid, add the coconut cream and mix well.
- Check and adjust the seasoning.
- Serve immediately with your choice of garnish.
- Enjoy!
