Here’s a rich and delicious paleo pumpkin soup recipe to warm you up over winter. Pumpkins are full of antioxidant carotenoids to protect your body’s cells from free radical oxidative damage.
They also contain vitamin C and a range of B vitamins, along with minerals like magnesium, calcium, potassium, phosphorous and zinc.
For such a soft and creamy texture, pumpkins are also surprisingly high in beneficial dietary fiber.
This paleo soup recipe uses a blender and combines pumpkin with BPA-free coconut milk, red onion, bell pepper, coconut oil, garlic and turmeric for a synergy of flavors and a broad range of health benefits to boot.
Let’s have a look at all the ingredients and how to make it up yourself tonight.
Ingredients
- 1 small or half a mid-sized pumpkin.
- 1 bell pepper (preferably orange or red which can contain more antioxidants).
- 1 can of BPA-free organic coconut milk (BPA is an endocrine disruptor but this brand is BPA-free).
- 1 large red onion.
- 1 tablespoon of virgin coconut oil for frying.
- 2 teaspoons of turmeric.
- 1 – 3 cloves of crushed garlic (depending on how much you like that garlic taste).
- 2 teaspoons of fermented fish sauce (half a teaspoon of Himalayan crystal salt or real sea salt can replace this).
- Cracked pepper to taste.
How to Make Paleo Pumpkin Soup
Begin by cutting up and steaming your pumpkin as described in How to Cook Pumpkins for Maximum Nutrition for around 15 minutes.
While the pumpkin is steaming, slice up your onion and gently fry it in the coconut oil in a saucepan, stirring occasionally, until the onion is starting to turn clear. Incidentally, putting onions in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes before chopping them will help prevent tears.
Slice away the top of the bell pepper and wash away any seeds. Cut it into quarters and add it to the steamer on top of the pumpkin for the last five minutes of steaming. The pumpkin is ready when a fork will go into the pulp easily.
Once the steaming vegetables are done, scoop them straight into your blender and put the lid on to keep them warm (if your blender jug is made of plastic rather than glass like mine it would be better to let them cool for a bit). Steamed pumpkin skin blends up nicely and many of the nutrients are contained just below the skin so there’s no reason to remove the skin unless you really want to.
Next add the turmeric and garlic to the gently frying onions. Mix them in and then pour in the coconut milk, followed by a little fermented fish sauce and cracked pepper to taste.
Stir up this orange mixture until warm, then carefully pour it straight into the blender over the pumpkin and bell pepper. Now simply make sure the blender lid is on tight and puree it all up until you have a creamy consistency.
This paleo pumpkin soup will be piping hot and ready to pour into bowls and eat immediately. I’d appreciate hearing what you think of this soup recipe if you make it up for yourself and any additional ingredients you’d suggest adding.
