Pumpkin, Mushroom & Coconut Soup

Dorothy Porker

A fragrant, easy, filling, multi-textured soup from Petty Pandean-Elliot's The Indonesian Table.

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Course Dinner, Lunch, Main course

Cuisine Indonesian

Servings 4

2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
3 makrut lime leaves coarsely torn
2 red bird's eye chilies thinly sliced, see notes
1 large banana shallot sliced into thin rings
400 ml - 14 fl oz coconut milk divided into two
500 g - 1 lb 2 oz pumpkin, butternut squash or sweet potato peeled and diced into 1 1/2 cm - 5/8" cubes
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
200 gr - 7 oz oyster mushrooms sliced into thirds, see notes
100 gr - 3 1/2 oz baby spinach
small bunch basil leaves and stems chopped

In a medium saucepan, combine 2 cloves of finely sliced garlic, 2 coarsely torn makrut lime leaves, 2 finely sliced chilies and 1 finely sliced shallot with 200 ml - 7 fl oz of the coconut milk and 200 ml - 7 fl oz of water and bring to the boil.
Once the mixture has come to the boil, add 500 gr - 1 lb 2 oz cubed pumpkin and bring back to the boil before covering, reducing the heat and simmering for 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender. You can test the tenderness of the pumpkin by sticking a fork in to your chunkiest cube of pumpkin, it should poke straight through.
Add the remaining 200 ml - 7 fl oz of coconut milk and season to taste with the salt and pepper.
Now add 200 g - 7 oz of sliced mushrooms and cook for a further 3-4 minutes before stirring in 100 g - 3 1/2 oz of spinach and a small bunch of chopped basil and cook for another 2 minutes.
Discard the lime leaves and season to taste before ladling into bowls and serving.

This soup serves 4 as a starter or side and 2 as a main
My basil went off before I was able to use it so I've only tried this basilless
I used 1 1/2 home-grown Serrano chilies instead of bird's eye chilies, if you don't like your food to be too spicy remove the seeds and pith of whichever chili you're using
I used 150 gr - 5 oz thinly sliced chestnut mushrooms
If you don't like this many textures I'd suggest using a stick blender to break up the pumpkin pieces at step 3, before adding in the mushrooms, spinach and basil - note some of the pumpkin is so soft it will break up during the remainder of the cooking process anyway
If you want to batch prep and freeze this soup, I suggest you stop at step 3, freeze whatever you're not using that day and adding in fresh mushrooms, spinach and basil when you're reheating the soup

Keyword soup