Occasional cooks: thai-style pumpkin soup

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Share what you're cooking this week, ask for tips or recipes for a dish, tell us about your meals out.

I actually cooked this week!

via coles.com.au

The café across the road from me closed at the start of the pandemic - apparently, their lease was up and the landlord planned to raise the rent, so they didn't even bother trying to survive the first lockdown.

I miss their Thai-style pumpkin soup, so last weekend I decided to give it a try myself.

I mashed up details from these three recipes, so click through if you want some more details, but this was pretty straightforward.

The simplest version of this recipes just adds some curry paste to soup, the more complicated versions use lime juice, fish sauce, etc to add some fresh tastes. That makes it a good recipe to have in your back pocket - rip out the simple version when you're in a rush, or fancy it up when you have time.

• 1 kg (4 pounds-ish) pumpkin
• About a third as much potatoes
• 1 brown onion
• Fresh lemongrass and ginger
• Red curry paste
• Chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 can coconut milk

• To finish, your preferred combo of: fish sauce, lime juice, chopped and roasted peanuts, fresh coriander/cilantro, fried shallots, sliced red chili, more coconut milk.

Slice the onion and cook for around five minutes, with the grated ginger and lemongrass. 

Once onions are soft, add the curry paste and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the pumpkin, potatoes, stock and coconut milk (preserve a little to serve). Simmer gently for around 30 minutes until the vege are all soft.

Fish out the lemongrass, then blend the soup.

Stir in the fish sauce and lime juice, add any garnishes to the top, and serve with crusty bread.

via goodfood.com.au

Elsewhere, say, did you know it's Negroni Week? I say leave the negroni, take the cannoli.

And always leave them with a joke...