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This Thai pumpkin curry soup is straight-up nourishing dinner magic. It's warm, aromatic, and packed to the gosh-darned roof with veggies that don't ask for much more than a single pot and 30 minutes of your time. Weeknight dinner? Handled. Holiday starter? Absolute showstopper.
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Since you hate having to prep a soup for hours, I made this recipe as simple as I could for you, you lazy bum. It's pretty cost-effective too, relying on canned pumpkin and coconut milk, and you can rock it with either store-bought or homemade red curry paste. A squeeze of lime and a handful of fresh herbs at the end, and you're staring down a bowl that knows exactly what comfort food should look - and, more importantly taste like.
Serve it with a side of coconut jasmine rice, ladle it into little cups to serve with cranberry puff pastries or vegan pumpkin puff pastry, or keep it as the go-to soup in your thermos for work when fall hits and you want something warming without the hassle of having to leave your office at lunch.
Grab your pot, crack open that can of pumpkin, and let's make the kind of soup that'll have you casting eye-rolling sidewise glances at takeout menus like, "nah, I'm good. Two stars on Yelp for you, son."
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🥰 Why you'll adore this pumpkin curry soup recipe
✊ Vegan AF and GF: Like all of my vegan soup recipes, this one comes in swinging without the need for fish sauce, shrimp paste, or any dismembered parts that belong on a chicken. It's also something that'll make your dinner guests realize that maybe gluten-free vegan recipes don't suck so bad after all.
⏱️ Ready in Under 30 Minutes: Even if you are kinda slow at chopping, you are about to have an absurdly good-smelling bowl of soup on your kitchen table in less than half an hour.
✅ Tested and Approved: Like all of the vegan recipes I share, I perfected this pumpkin soup recipe with feedback from a team of hundreds of testers who successfully recreated it all around the planet.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
🎃 Vegan Thai Pumpkin Curry Ingredients
Shallots
Shallots, or red onions, provide a mild sweetness and pungency to the soup. I keep shallots on hand to make tons of vegan Thai recipes like pad ba mee, Thai eggplant curry, and vegan massaman curry. Yellow onion can 100% be used as a substitute if it's all you can get your hands on.
Thai Curry Paste
I have a very easy-to-make and delicious red curry paste recipe you can rock, but my fave vegan ones you can find in grocery stores are from Mike's Organic Curry Love and Thai Kitchen.
What's pretty dope about this pumpkin curry recipe, though, is you can absolutely tweak it to your taste and use vegan green curry paste, yellow curry paste, tom yum paste, or bumbu Bali (which is a yellowish curry paste from Indonesia).
Lime Leaves
Makrut lime leaves are the real deal for building that citrusy, floral vibe in dishes like my vegan pad ped, vegan yellow curry, and green curry fried rice.
You might still see them sold under the name kaffir lime leaves, but that term comes with oodles of sucky racist baggage, so I don't use it. If your market's out of makrut leaves (they are seasonal, and sometimes found out of season in freezers at Asian grocery stores), no stress. A little lime zest tossed in to taste will back you up just fine.
Pumpkin Purée
Pumpkin purée is way easier to deal with for a quick soup recipe than roasting and blending fresh pumpkin. That's exactly why I lean on it for recipes like my vegan pumpkin cinnamon rolls and pumpkin flan. You can also rock this recipe with butternut squash purée if you have some on hand, or skin, steam, and purée kabocha squash to use in its place.
The Sweetener
Coconut sugar lays down a mellow sweetness that plays nice with curry spices instead of steamrolling them. Brown sugar swaps in just fine, and palm sugar (the traditional filling for Indonesian desserts like klepon and kolak biji salak) works great too. I keep both around since my wife skips processed sugars. Otherwise, brown sugar or regular ol' white sugar will work fine for ya.
Tamari
Soy sauce is the main source of salinity in this recipe, but tamari brings that clean, balanced saltiness that melts into the background and makes the soup taste like it's been low-key plotting greatness all along. If soy's not your thing in life, coconut aminos can be used, and if you just DGAF about gluten, feel free to use regular soy sauce.
Cumin Seeds
I am an absolute slut about the wild mountain cumin from Burlap & Barrel. A friend gave me a jar of it as a gift, and their floral, straight-up aromatic magic when bloomed in hot oil won me over for life.
You'll catch me using these same slender cumin seeds in my jalapeño salsa, salsa ranchera, and roasted habanero salsa. Anyway, YES, you can use the cobweb-covered ancient cumin seeds you already have growing beards in your pantry, and even ground cumin powder works in this recipe as long as you don't cook it quite as long.
Get my fave cumin seeds for free!
Using this link, add the wild mountain cumin to your cart, spend at least $15 on some of the other absurdly good spices from Burlap & Barrel (they all seriously slap) and the bottle of this bangin' wild mountain cumin becomes FREE, and you will love it so much.
Dried Thai Chilies
Dried Thai chilies bring straight-up heat and a subtle smoky undertone to the tadka. Crushed red pepper flakes or arbol chilies can stand in if that's all you can get your hands on. You'll see these chilies making cameos in my nam prik pao and Thai sweet chili sauce too, so keeping a stash on hand is always a win.
Coconut Milk
I recommend using full-fat coconut milk, but if you don't care about it being quite as rich, you can use light coconut milk or even some other unsweetened plant-based milk of your choice.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Fakthong Kaeng Buat
This Thai classic is basically pumpkin kicked back in a pool of sweetened coconut cream, and it's a total staple in the northeast of Thailand. The move is simple: simmer skinned pumpkin chunks in coconut cream with sugar until they're tender and silky. Serve it chilled or at room temp.
Pumpkin Massaman Curry
Massaman curry is rich, spiced comfort with a Thai-Persian twist-cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and star anise simmered down in a coconut milk base. Add pumpkin into the mix and it soaks up all that fragrant sauce while giving the curry a natural sweetness as the pumpkin gets melt-in-your-mouth tender. Serve it with Thai basil fried rice and some Thai spring rolls.
Indian Pumpkin Curry Soup
Swap out the curry paste for a spoonful of Madras curry powder, and add some curry leaves to the tadka. Serve alongside vegan biryani, or scoop it up with aloo kulcha.
Grab my easy-yo-use app that builds your whole week with real, chef-tested vegan dinners in 30 seconds, customized to your budget, time, and taste, with a shopping list sorted by aisle.
📖 How to Make Thai Pumpkin Curry
Wanna crush this pumpkin curry without breaking a sweat? Follow the step-by-step photos and tips to nail it the first try. Or, if you're the type who speed-runs recipes, the printable card is hanging out at the bottom waiting for you.
Step One
Veg of Allegiance:
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. After 90 seconds, when the oil is hot, add the diced shallot, celery, and carrot, and cook for 8 minutes over medium-high heat until the vegetables are softened and slightly fragrant.
Step Two
Hit Me Baby One More Lime:
Add the red curry paste and lime leaves, stirring constantly for 2 minutes over medium-high heat until the paste is evenly incorporated and aromatic.
Step Three
Pump in the Lime, Rock Your Body in Time:
Stir in the pumpkin purée and vegetable stock (or water). Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
Step Four
C.R.E.A.M. (Coconut Rules Everything Around Me):
Stir in the full-fat coconut milk, rice vinegar, coconut sugar, and tamari. Remove the lime leaves if desired. Remove from the heat so as not to boil the coconut milk.
Step Five
Sweeney Tadka:
For the optional tadka, warm the olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat for 90 seconds. When the oil is hot, add the brown mustard seeds and cumin seeds, and cook for 45 seconds until they begin to pop.
Step Six
Dirty Seeds Done Dirt Cheap:
Stir the raw pumpkin seeds, julienned ginger, and dried Thai chilies into the hot oil, then remove from heat, giving them a couple of minutes to simmer and release their flavors into the hot oil.
Step Seven
Soup Dogg:
Serve the soup hot, with a drizzle of coconut milk, a sprinkle of fried shallots, a spoonful of the pumpkin seed tadka, and fresh cilantro leaves or Thai basil leaves. If you want something dark to drizzle on the soup, kecap manis is a great option for that!
💡Serving Ideas
Of course, you can serve this as a standalone Thai meal or with a side of steamed jasmine rice.
This coconut pumpkin curry soup is versatile, colorful, and just cozy enough to make your vegan Thanksgiving menu feel elevated without overcomplicating the prep. You can even make it weeks before and freeze it to minimize your holiday cooking.
Ladle this pumpkin curry soup into little bowls with some vegan sausage rolls or butternut squash crostini as a starter to kick off your Thanksgiving spread.
Serving a soup course really gives you a little wiggle room to put the finishing touches on the terrifying baby-shaped tofu turkey you are roasting up in the kitchen.
Of course, a holiday meal like that is downright stupid without bourbon cranberry sauce, vegan butternut squash mac and cheese, maple-balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots, a tray of vegan sweet potato casserole, or a scoop of silky dairy-free mashed potatoes dripping with mushroom gravy.
👉Top tips
- Bloom the Curry Paste: Cook the red curry paste with the shallots, celery, and carrot over medium-high heat for at least a couple of minutes, and try to stir it so that it gets some direct contact with the surface of the pan. This helps to release the aromatics from the paste so the soup hits extra-flavorful from the first spoonful.
- Don't Boil the Coconut Milk: Add coconut milk at the very end and turn off the heat under the pot as you stir it in. This prevents it from separating and also cools the soup just a little so that you can eat it right away.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
To freeze, pour the cooled soup into a freezer-safe container, leaving some space at the top for expansion. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
❄️ Refrigeration:
Allow the soup to cool to room temperature, then transfer it to a heatproof container with a lid and store in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days.
🔥 Stovetop Reheating:
Pour the thawed or refrigerated soup into a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through. Add a splash of coconut milk or water if the soup has thickened.
✌️You'll love these vegan Thai curries too:
Master the art of plant based Thai cuisine in this super-fun cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Thai Pumpkin Curry Soup Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 cup shallot or red onion, diced
- 1 cup celery diced
- 1 cup carrot diced
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 8 lime leaves
- 2 15 oz. cans pumpkin purée
- 4 cups unsalted vegetable stock or water
- 13.5 oz. coconut milk full-fat
- 4 teaspoons rice vinegar
- ¼ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
Optional Pumpkin Seed Tadka:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 tablespoons raw pumpkin seeds
- 1 inch ginger peeled and julienned
- 6 dried Thai chilies
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Optional Garnishes:
- Coconut milk
- Fried shallots
- Cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat for 90 seconds. When the oil is hot, add the shallot, celery, and carrot. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
- Add the red curry paste and lime leaves, stirring constantly for 2 minutes until the curry paste is fragrant and well distributed.
- Stir in the pumpkin purée and vegetable stock (or water). Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
- Stir in the coconut milk, rice vinegar, coconut sugar, and tamari. Remove the lime leaves if desired.
- For the optional tadka, warm olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat for 90 seconds. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Cook for 45 seconds until they begin to pop.
- Stir the pumpkin seeds, ginger, chilies, and salt into the hot oil, and remove from heat.
- Serve the soup hot, with a drizzle of coconut milk, fried shallots, a spoonful of the tadka, and cilantro leaves.
Notes
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Meg says
Great taste, easy….thank you Chef Adam
Marjorie says
The perfect way to use my leftover pumpkin puree from Adam's pumpkin chiffon pie recipe.