Creamy Pumpkin and Potato Soup with Coconut Milk
Ingredients
- 1 kg pumpkin
- 1 potato approximate 200 gm
- 1 large onion
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp oil
- 4 ¼ cups vegetable broth 1 litre
- 1 sprig of rosemary Note 2
- 125 ml coconut milk
- 2 tbsp pepitas roasted optional
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 200C.
- Halve the pumpkin and remove the seeds. If using anything else but Hokkaido, peel the pumpkin as well. Slice it thickly and cut the slices into cubes.
- Peel and cube the potato. Chop the onion into quarters.
- Spread the garlic cloves, pumpkin, and potato cubes on an oven tray. Sprinkle the rosemary a drizzle olive oil and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the veggies are fork tender.
- Blend the vegetable stock and roasted vegetables along with rosemary sprig in a blender. And pour the blended soup into a saucepan. You can use an immersion blender to puree the roasted veggies and vegetable stock mixture (Note 4).
- Add coconut milk reserving a bit for garnish swirl. Simmer the soup gently until the soup starts to boil (3-5 minutes)
- In the meantime, roast the pepitas with a teaspoon of oil, oregano and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Adjust the taste with salt and pepper. Serve the soup topped with a coconut milk swirl or roasted pepitas and herb croutons.
Notes
- Varieties like butternut or Queensland blue, which have firmer flesh, are ideal as softer pumpkins can make the soup watery. Kent aka Jap doesn’t need to be peeled, all other varieties do.
- Use 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary if you don’t have fresh herbs.
- If your pumpkin soup tastes bland, the likely culprit is a lack of seasoning. Adding a pinch of salt can make a world of difference by enhancing the natural flavours of the ingredients. To bring out a warm, spicy depth in your soup, don’t skimp on the spices thyme, cumin, ginger and cinnamon are all crucial. The right choice of pumpkin is also key to a flavourful, rich soup.