Ahhh soup weather. Oklahoma is finally enjoying a comfortable dip in both temperatures and humidity, so our windows are open and our menu is featuring soup here and there.
Last weekend our dear friends Mickey and Kellie joined us for a casual dinner of old-fashioned chicken and dumplings and newly developed pumpkin-coconut soup. (Food choices is a great idea around here, with a carnivore and a vegetable nut living under one roof.) Kellie brought the most glorious Autumn Harvest salad (pecans, goat cheese, and mustard vinaigrette!) and two substantial loaves of pumpkin bread. Just delicious. We did not purposefully coordinate our pumpkin theme, it just happened naturally. And it’s not the first time, either, ha!
Hashtag Themed Dinners.
Hashtag Menu-Forward.
Okay.
The boys feasted on chicken and dumplings. That pumpkin-coconut soup is one of my personal favorites, and Kellie liked it too. I was so happy. Since that experimental time a few Decembers ago, I have fooled around with the recipe a bit, simplified it actually, and today I’m sharing it all over again for a few people who asked about it on Instagram.
I ate these high-protein, vitamin-packed leftovers for a late lunch on Sunday,
following that delicious pie-sampling event at Savory Spice in OKC.
(I owe you that story too!) I felt totally reset after this lunch.
Supremely nourished, very comfortable. xoxo
Pumpkin-Coconut Soup is one of those “use what you have and then add things as the mood strikes you” type of recipes. Have fun!!
Here are the basics, I have typed in bold the ingredients that seem to set this soup apart:
- olive oil and basic spices for sauteeing veggies of choice
- spices like sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, ginger, cumin, curry powder, garlic, turmeric.
- finely diced “trinity” type veggies like carrots, celery, garlic, etc (you might use onion)
- 1 can pumpkin puree (15 ounces)
- 1-2 cans crushed tomatoes (15 ounces)
- 1/3 cup of full-fat coconut milk (maybe more)
- chicken broth to the thinness of soup you like
- shredded cooked chicken (I like breast meat, you do YOU)
- seeds and fresh herbs for topping (we used sweet basil and roasted sunflower kernels this time, the only limit is your imagination!)
Easy, Intuitive Method, as all the best soups are made:
- Probably your chicken is already cooked and ready to reheat and add to the soup, right? Ok. Have it coming to room temperature while you begin.
- Chop and sautee you trinity veggies, seasoning liberally as you go. Allow so much more time than you think, so the base can get nice and soft and mushy and flavorful. Low and slow. Simmery and sultry. Listen to either a TED talk or French music, to encourage the process.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, pumpkin puree, and some of the coconut milk, stirring affectionately until it is all incorporated and simmering nicely again.
- Eventually start adding chicken broth to achieve the thinness you like your soup that day, knowing it will reduce and thicken the longer it cooks. This time I added a full “box” of broth instead of just two cups, and I liked it a lot more.
- Add the cooked chicken. Small, tender pieces are best.
- Taste and see that the soup is good.
- Give thanks for things like curry and fresh herbs that you suddenly remember having.
- Consider texting your husband to see if he can pick up some roasted pepitas on the way home from the City then decide against that because it’s not worth defending your use of the word “pepitas” over just “pumpkin seeds,” and anyway are TED talks even still a thing, babe? Decide with confidence that sunflower kernels will do great.
The soup is now complete and ready to slurp decadently. Maybe drizzle more coconut milk on top, then garnish in every fancy way you crave. Just know that you will want to lick the bowl clean. It’s warm and filling and the vitamins explode into your bloodstream in the most magnificent, joyful, life-affirming way. I like it served hot alongside a cold, crunchy salad and warm sourdough bread, but who wouldn’t?
I am pretty basic in that way, ha.
Okay, happy soup weather to you! I hope you try this and find your own twists and ways to make it perfect for you and your people. Please send me the details you discover. Soup will be on the Lazy W menu again soon, and I love all kinds of variations.
And what TED talks are you watching lately?
“Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment,
so does study without zeal damage the memory
by not assimilating what it absorbs.”
~Leonardo da Vinci
XOXOXO
Brittany says
I love this intuitive cooking thing. (I’m not a great cook) (But I can make good soups and I’m going to try this one SOON)
I haven’t been listening to TED talks but I have been reading “Rising Strong” by Brene Brown, and “Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better”, by Pema Chodron. I have tried many times to read her “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, but it can be just a tiny bit dense and esoteric. But “Fail Better” is a very short, distilled version of When Things Fall Apart, IMO, and the advice therein is just perfect, and within my grasp.