This Thai pumpkin soup is creamy and full of flavour, zest and spice. It’s filling enough for a meal or can be paired with shredded or diced chicken or grilled prawns for extra protein. It’s paleo, gluten-free, Whole30 and vegan-friendly.
Thai Coconut Pumpkin Soup
Yesterday was cold and rainy and since I was working at home I decided to treat myself to something warm and comforting. I had some sweet pumpkin, brown onion, leftover coriander stalks and a few other Asian ingredients in the fridge from the curry I made a few days before.
A bit of this, a bit of that, and some coconut cream and I ended up with one of the best pumpkin soups I’ve ever made. Not kidding!
This paleo-friendly, spicy pumpkin soup is very easy to make. You might not have all of the ingredients (a trip to the Asian grocer or your local markets will help), but the recipe is a good template to play around with and to substitute some of the spices or herbs with whatever you have on hand.
The soup is dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan-friendly (omit the fish sauce), and Whole30 compliant.
P.S. This recipe is so good it made it into my internationally published Eat Drink Paleo Cookbook.
Notes On Making Thai Pumpkin Soup
- Fresh turmeric and galangal roots can be replaced with 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon of galangal powder. You can also just add 1-2 teaspoons of curry powder. Kent or butternut pumpkin can be used; sweet potato and carrots would also work well if you don’t have any pumpkin. Also, clean pumpkin purée out of a can will do just as well.
- Coconut cream: Full-fat coconut milk can be used if you can’t find coconut cream. Simply put a can of coconut milk in a fridge for an hour or so to thicken up the top layer of the milk. Open the can without shaking and use the thickened coconut milk, which is what coconut cream is. Choose coconut milk with 50-60% coconut content, not the diluted coconut milk drink as that will not thicken.
- For a vegan version, replace fish sauce with some coconut aminos or Tamari sauce.
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Cooked & Loved
Ingredients
- 1 brown onion diced
- 1 stalk lemongrass cut in thirds
- 1 long red chilli diced and deseeded
- 2 tablespoons diced fresh coriander cilantro stalks/roots
- 2 cm fresh galangal piece or 1 teaspoon powder, optional
- 2 cm turmeric root piece or 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
- 4 kaffir lime leaves optional
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil
- 4 cups pumpkin peeled and cubed, sweet kind like Kent/Japanese is best
- 2 garlic cloves diced
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce use coconut aminos or Tamari as an alternative
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- Peel from half of fresh lime
- 1/2 cup coconut cream 100 ml / 3.5 fl oz. plus extra to serve (see notes above)
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- Coriander/cilantro leaves to serve
Instructions
- Add the onion, lemongrass, chilli, coriander stalks, galangal, turmeric and kaffir lime leaves to a medium saucepan and sauté in coconut oil over medium heat for 2–3 minutes.
- Add the pumpkin, garlic, lime peel, fish sauce and vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes, covered, until pumpkin is soft when poked with a knife.
- Remove the turmeric, galangal, lime peel and lemongrass from the soup and transfer the rest to a food processor or a blender in batches if needed. Purée until smooth, then add the coconut cream and lime juice. Whiz a couple more times to incorporate. Serve with a ripple of coconut cream and fresh coriander leaves on top.
Nutrition
Want more pumpkin recipes:
- Easiest Pumpkin Chicken Curry EVER
- Roasted Pumpkin With Pecans & Cranberries
- Pumpkin & Cauliflower ‘Dal’
- Simple Guide To Squash & Pumpkin+ 20 Recipe Ideas
- Healthy & Fabulous Pumpkin Salads
I just made this! With sweet potato chunks to add so it was more of a curry. It was wonderful!!!
I made this soup yesterday and it was absolutely delicious! Many thanks for the receipe!
Made the lazy version using lemongrass / garlic paste, dried coriander, turmeric powder instead of their fresh counterparts, but wow, still brilliant! Many thanks for the recipe. Sure to be made over and over again.
Thank you so much for this recipe ! It is THE best pumpkin soup I have ever made and I have tried a lot of different recipes for pumpkin soup. An absolute winner in my book ( pot 🙂 ) !
Just finished making this soup. Thank you for sharing this. This pumpkin soup rocks!!
Made this for my parents tonight- just so so so good.
So quick and easy to make as well. Was licking the saucepan, I kid you not.
Thanks 🙂
I lick the saucepan too 😉
This sounded tasty so I doubled the recipe, now I wished I had tripled the recipe. I used a spiracha hot chili sauce and had to do the lemon grass substitute. VERY tasty.
I have canned pureed pumpkin instead of fresh, can anyone suggest how much I should use of that instead? :))
I have always been a huge fan of pumpkin soup but I never tried to make it myself – until today. I used fresh ginger instead of galangal, other than that I followed the recipe. I can honestly say this is the best pumpkin soup I have ever had. It’s spicy, exotic and the coconut oil gives it a nice little twist. What a fantastic recipe, thank you!
P.S. Made it for my husband and brother, neither of them a huge pumpkin fan. They licked their bowls clean and asked be to make more!
That’s so lovely to hear and I am happy to hear that the non-pumpkin eaters loved it.
This has to be my second favourite recipe from your book – I can’t get enough of the spicy sweet potato chips (although it is hard to play favourites with so many great recipes!). I should really try some of the other recipes and not just stick to my favourites!
This is a good use of Halloween pumpkins.
Спасибо дорогая!
Delish!! Made this yesterday and loved it so much I am making it again today, so that I can freeze some. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I made this today and it was fabulous
Thank you 🙂
Absolutely delicious and so healthy!
Thank you.
Thanks Pamela
Yummy soup!! The best pumpkin soup I’ve ever made. My better half loved it too
Oh my gosh – this is seriously the tastiest pumpkin soup I have EVER made. Thank you for such an awesome recipe!!
You’re welcome 🙂
I made this tonight and it was delicious! Thanks so much…will definitely make this a staple!
Thanks Sam.
Irena this is my absolute favourite soup recipe! I make it regularly and everyone always loves it. Thank you for sharing your talents with the world, I love your recipes!
I absolutely love this soup, thank you for sharing. I’ve just made a triple batch for the freezer.
Fall off the bone chicken. A great soup. I’ve made it often. Thanks
I’m really looking forward to trying this! A few questions, I’m in California and have never seen galangal in any of my stores or farmers markets. Should I just use ginger instead or what do you suggest?
Also, this probably sounds awful but can I use organic pumpkin purée? (I try to be in the kitchen as little as possible!) 😛
Thanks!!
Yes, ginger is fine to us instead. And if it’s good quality puree, then I won’t judge you 😉 Go for it.
Mmm this sounds delicous. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
The most delicious Pumpkin soup recipe I’ve tried to date!
Thanks Julie 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it.
Sorry, easy to me is not thousands of exotic ingredients!!!! I want easy easy please!!!!
Hi is there any way to substitute for canned pumpkin purée?
Yes, you can definitely use canned pumpkin. I think maybe 2 1/2 cans, so about a litre of pureed pumpkin maybe.
I’m living in China right now, so the leamon grass and galangal and turmeric are no problem, but lime keffir leaves….not finding it. What can I use as a substitute?
Just a few fresh lime peels will work 🙂
Loved this and so did my husband. I had only a small butternut pumpkin so added some sweet potato and a potato and an extra bit of chilli. It was delicious have made several times since and every time it is a winner
I have been making this soup for years and still come back to it every winter. A real family favourite!
Thank you 🙂
This soup was amazing! Thanks so much. Will definitely go on my list of favourites!
I luurv this recipe. At the moment I make a large batch of it every week and my partner and I have it most days for lunch at work. I make it a bit different each time.
Thanks!
Nick
Thanks, Nick. Yes, us too when pumpkin is in season. I sometimes make it a little less spicy for my bub to have some and add chili later in bowls.