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
Ingredients
Pumpkin soup:
- 2 cups pumpkin puree , from the can
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon red curry paste , up to 2 teaspoons
- 4 tablespoons honey
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- salt
Caramelized pecans:
- ⅓ cup pecans
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
How to make pumpkin coconut soup
- In a large saucepan, combine pumpkin, water, and coconut milk on medium heat, and stir to combine.
- Add ½ teaspoon of red curry paste, stir to combine.
- Add honey.
- Add ¼ 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.
- Once you seasoned the soup with salt, you may add more red curry paste if desired, using ½ teaspoon.
How to caramelize pecans
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
We absolutely love your pumpkin soup recipe! We loved it so much that we featured it in one of our latest wedding blog posts - "13 Pumpkin Goodies to Serve at Your Wedding." With the blog post we are also doing a pumpkin recipe contest. Even though we featured your recipe on the blog, please feel free to also submit a recipe for the contest!
Thanks so much for posting such an easy and delicious recipe!
Hi, Love this soup... I love pumpkin! So am always looking for pumpkin recipes! I buy up canned pumpkin right after the holiday, when retailers think the season is past!! I even bake my own pumpkins when out of the canned! My mother used to take a fairly large pumpkin, cut the top carefully (so she could replace it as a lid) scoop out the seeds and strings, fill the pumpkin with usually beans ( she added molasses, brown sugar, salt pork (cut up in very small pieces, sometimes raisins and nuts) and baked this until the pumpkin was fork tender. The beans were ok, but man the pumpkin was yummmy...
Off the subject of cooking, are you..... Julia on Julia???
Very smart of you to buy pumpkin after the holidays! This year I discovered Walmart online shopping with free shipping - and they've got 100% canned pumpkin (no additives) pretty cheaply! Love the way your mother prepared a pumpkin with beans - sounds delicious, and the presentation was stunning, I bet! Did you see my recipe for pumpkin chili and pumpkin curry? You might like those! Yes, my name is Julia. 🙂 Is that what you're asking? 🙂
LOL, No Julia,
I know, at least based on the info you post your name is Julia. What I was asking is, there was a movie, Julia on Julia (as in Julia Child). A Julia made every recipe in the Julia Child cookbook in one year. I was asking if you were that Julia. I saw both the chili and curry recipes. I plan on trying the curry. I am not big on chili.
VaLizzy
LOL! 🙂 No, I am not THAT Julia, even though I read the book (loved it!) and watched the movie (loved it too!). Making every recipe in a year out of Julia Child's cookbook would be quite a challenge! 🙂 I love the pumpkin curry - hope you will try it and like it too!
I'm making this for a lighter lunch before our big Thanksgiving dinner! I'm very excited to try it. I've made pumpkin soup in the past but felt it was missing that extra something. I think you've hit it on the nose! If I double the soup recipe for a crowd, should I double the red curry paste? I'm thinking I shouldn't...
Since the Thanksgiving is over, my reply is obviously late. But, to answer your question, I would decide whether to double the red curry paste depending on how spicy the paste is. If it is very strong - I would not double it, if it is mild - I would. It also depends if your family likes a bit of spice in their soup or not.
How simple but I bet very tasty as well. You take lovely photos Julie!
sorry I spelled your name wrong "Julia"