Recipe Upgrade: Curry Pumpkin Soup

Swish. Swoosh. What is that sound you say? It's just me, shooing off the virtual cobwebs that have inhabited this lovely blog. I wish I could say I have a good reason for neglecting my poor little baby East of Eating. I wish I could say I had triplets or took a sabbatical to Oslo to study Nordic legend. I wish I could say that I fell in love with a handsome Spaniard named Roderigo and we've been spending the last month making fondue and reading each other love poems. But I'm embarrassed to say, that it's just not true!

I've been lazy, people! Lazy and unmotivated. Food hasn't been that exciting for me lately. Maybe it was the holidays? Too many rich dinners, glasses of prosecco, and games of Yankee Swap can take its toll on a person. Throughout January, I found myself dreading the kitchen and my somewhat dilapidated pantry. My epicurious app stood idle. My food processor was silent. I became the cook who didn't cook. I wasn't East of Eating, I was West of Eating. So far past eating, I feared I had slipped into culinary boredom. Gasp! Shudder! Get the defibrillator!

Now, I am no drama queen, but in all honestly I haven't been cooking. But I'm going to - RIGHT NOW.

Today’s featured recipe comes from my dear friend Liz and hales from Bermuda. That's right, Bermuda! Home of pink sand beaches and one of my favorite cocktails, a Dark and Stormy. I've actually been there, and it is one of the loveliest places I've ever encountered. I was there over Columbus Day weekend to watch Liz marry her beau, and to this day I'm still finding pink sand in my belongings! That stuff gets everywhere - I think I was finding it in my hair weeks after the trip - and trust me I shower regularly.

beeeeeeautiful Bermuda

A few weeks ago, I went over to Liz's for a Pilates training session. She's training to be an instructor so I served as a guinea pig of sorts so she could practice her mad training skillz. By the end of the session I learned how tighten and tone my core and got a hell of a workout. I also realized that I should probably attempt a sit-up once every few months. My abs punished me for days afterwards for waking them from their months long hibernation.

Afterwards we made a healthy dinner - chicken on the grill pan over some spinach and a curry pumpkin soup. Liz had taken the pumpkin soup recipe from her good friend's mother, a Bermudian. The recipe itself was quite simple, mostly due to its use of canned pumpkin. I’m no stranger to pureed soups, and they are quite easy aside from cutting the squash or pumpkin up. This eliminated that step, and the recipe included a healthy dose of savories, curry, and some heavy cream at the end.

Actually, I CAN believe it's not butter. It stinks.

Liz, being the uber Pilates guru and healthy eater, had a really healthy pantry, so we had to tweak this recipe towards the healthy end of the spectrum. We used margarine instead butter and non-fat sour cream in place of the heavy cream. While the soup came out rather tasty, I felt a good dose of FAT would have made it all the better. It was a little thin, and I don't think I put enough curry in it. There was room for improvement, and I vowed to take on the challenge.

While many websites and health magazines set out to remake recipes that are unhealthy into something more calories conscious, here at East of Eating, that is pure blasphemy! I’m not saying that you shouldn’t eat healthy, but a large part of my some what restricted diet dogma involves eating good food that tastes good, calories be damned! You only live once. So here’s my version of curry pumpkin soup – unleash the calorie beast!

Release the calorie Kracken!

My first step in creating my version of the curry pumpkin soup involved research. I wanted to see how other sources made their soup, and perhaps steal some of their ideas. Mwhahhaha. A quick search on epicurious.com revealed a few different recipes that while keeping the same key ingredients; onions, canned pumpkin, curry, and stock – had quite a few variations to them. One recipe called for garlic, ginger, curry, and several other Indian spices. I liked the idea of garlic, because garlic just makes everything better. Ginger was intriguing but can be very overpowering. Some recipes pureed everything together at the end. Some didn’t. I’m a strong believer in pureeing any creamy vegetable soup. A little emulsion goes a long way in binding all the flavors together. Lastly, what to use for the creamy agent? Some recipes called for just stock, others heavy cream, and one coconut milk! I had never used coconut milk and am always looking for a non-dairy alternative, so coconut milk made the cut.

New Kid on the Block - coconut milk

In addition to garlic and coconut milk as the upgrade ingredients, I had to use butter to start things off. If you want to make this totally vegan or dairy free, you an always use olive oil. But I don’t feel totally chef-a-fied unless I start my savories with butter. It was only 1T, not enough to derail any diet plans.

Using the coconut milk ended up being quite a wild ride. I opened the can, and was shocked at how thick it was! It looked and tasted like coconut tinged cool whip! I was a bit concerned that this would leave things too creamy or sweet, so set out to use only half of the can. Yet, when I went to add the coconut milk there was quite a bit of coconut water on the bottom. The cream top part was merely separation. Ah, you wily coconut! So I added the whole can, and it was an excellent idea! I didn’t know you could get that kind of creaminess from something non-dairy and I intend on investigating more uses for coconut milk in order to expand my non-dairy repertoire (and perhaps make me some vegan friends).

Check out that creamy coconut - and my handsome pointer finger

I would say the one thing that might need further tweaking was the amount of curry I used. I felt that when Liz and I made our healthy version, we didn’t use enough curry. You couldn’t really taste it and that spicy heat was missing. I realized when cooking my own soup, that I am a curry virgin. I never use the stuff, so didn’t really understand its potency. Most recipes recommended 2 teaspoons, so I started with that. After adding the curry, pumpkin, coconut milk and stock, I tasted it and felt like it needed a bit more curry. So I added one more teaspoon. Idiot! I should have waited for the soup to simmer and the ingredients to combine! When I gave it to my sister to taste, she liked it but felt it was too spicy for her. This confused me as I still didn’t think it was that spicy - that is until I ate a bowlful. Woweeee, that's some strong stuff. I’m intrigued by curry. It’s not like jalapeno or habanero hot, but it has a smoky boldness that can be a touch overwhelming. I would stick to the 2 teaspoon measurement for future batches – even if just so I could eat more than a small bowl in one sitting.

Here’s the finished product. I will happily add this to my pureed soup recipe collection – it’s cozy and delicious and the curry adds a dash of the exotic to my pretty Westernized pallet.

Finished product - velvety smooth with a hint of spice

Emily’s Curry Pumpkin Soup

With inspiration from Mrs. Wadson and Epicurious.com

1 T butter
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cans of pumpkin
1 can of coconut milk, unsweetened and full fat
2 t curry powder
2 cups of chicken stock
1 t honey
Salt and pepper to taste



Add 1 T butter to deep saucepan and melt on medium heat. Add onions and garlic and sauté 3 minutes.

Add 2 t curry power and sauté for 1-2 minutes until aromatic. Add pumpkin, stock, coconut milk, and honey. Stir to combine. If you feel like it looks too thick, you can throw in a little water. Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool. Puree batches in blender and then add back to sauce pan. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!