Pumpkin Coconut Soup with Caramelized Pecans – savory pumpkin soup flavored with red curry paste, a small amount of honey, and cumin. A perfect balance of flavors: Thai flavors combined with pumpkin with caramelized pecans adding a touch of sweetness. While this soup is quite different in flavor from traditional pumpkin soup, it will still make a great and unique addition to Thanksgiving menu.
You may have noticed I’ve been posting lots of pumpkin recipes lately, such as pumpkin banana bread with apples or apple pumpkin bundt cake or pumpkin waffles. And I am not done yet! 🙂 No pumpkin menu is complete without this amazingly delicious and easy pumpkin soup.
I am very particular about pumpkin soups: I like them savory and so that the pumpkin is not the only dominating flavor. Last year, I made this pumpkin and butternut squash soup which fit these 2 criteria and was super tasty – I highly recommend that soup! Well, this year I wanted something REALLY SIMPLE that did not even involve food processor but only one saucepan, so I came up with this recipe.
In this pumpkin soup recipe I combine pumpkin puree with a little bit of coconut milk, a touch of red curry paste, cumin and honey. The soup does not have a strong overwhelming Thai flavor, neither does it taste too much like a pumpkin. It’s just perfectly balanced. I use honey not to sweeten the soup but only to balance out other flavors. Even with the honey added, the soup is not sweet, the honey is just used to balance out the slight acidity of pumpkin.
This soup is highly nutritious (thanks to pumpkin) and gluten-free.
I like to sprinkle the soup with chopped pecans caramelized in brown sugar. It makes the soup pretty and even more fit for Thanksgiving. It also adds these tasty chunks of sweetness (little islands of sweetness :)) to the mostly savory soup!
If you are vegan: I do use butter to caramelize the nuts, so if you’re vegan, make sure either to sprinkle the soup with plain, non-caramelized, pecans or use alternative, vegan-friendly way to caramelize them.
This soup has so many great qualities that I just fall in love with it over and over, each time I make it! It’s so tasty, without Thai or pumpkin flavors overwhelming one another; it’s healthy; it’s super easy to make; and it looks so festive! Fit for everyday and for holidays, too!
Cook’s tips
- When adding red curry paste, do it gradually to make sure you achieve the right level of spiciness and not make the soup overly spicy. Start with 1 teaspoon of red curry paste and gradually add more after you taste the soup.
- Some brands of red curry paste are spicier than others so you have to be careful not to make the soup spicier than you want.
- I would not recommend adding more than 2 teaspoons of red curry paste, no matter what brand. This way, Thai flavor is not overwhelming: it just nicely balances with the pumpkin flavor.
Pumpkin Coconut Soup with Caramelized Pecans - savory pumpkin soup flavored with red curry paste, a small amount of honey, and cumin. Great recipe for Thanksgiving menu.
- 2 cups pumpkin puree , from the can
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon red curry paste , up to 2 teaspoons
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- salt
- 1/3 cup pecans
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
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In a large saucepan, combine pumpkin, water, and coconut milk on medium heat, and stir to combine.
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Add 1/2 teaspoon of red curry paste, stir to combine.
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Add honey.
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Add 1/4 teaspoon of cumin to the soup and season the soup with salt to achieve the desired saltiness. This step is very important: the soup should be generously seasoned with salt which will help bring out the rest of the flavors together.
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Once you seasoned the soup with salt, you may add more red curry paste if desired, using 1/2 teaspoon.
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Add butter and sugar to the frying pan on medium-high heat, add pecans. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring, to coat the pecans until they caramelize. Place pecans on foil and let them cool. Chop them up and sprinkle over each serving of warm pumpkin soup.
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