Thai Pumpkin Peanut Curry Soup

Jan here, with a pumpkin recipe that's a little bit different....

I LOVE pumpkin breads, pumpkin pie, and all the traditional pumpkin spice recipes, but sometimes a girl just wants some Thai food.

Spicy Thai food.

Delicious spicy Thai food.

And we live 700 miles away from my favorite Thai restaurant. Sigh.

So since it's October and time for everything pumpkin, I thought I'd share this recipe with you.

Thai Pumpkin Peanut Curry Soup
four servings, preparation time about 25 minutes

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons oil (I use coconut oil, but olive oil works just as well)
3/4 cup chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 small Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed, to make about 1 cup
3 Tablespoons Thai Curry Paste (red or green - I used green)

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup water
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
3 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter
salt and pepper to taste

Note: Like most soups, this recipe is very versatile. You can leave out the peanut butter if you need to, use vegetable broth instead of chicken, use russet potatoes instead of Yukon Gold, use pie pumpkins the way Virginia taught us here.... Make the recipe your own! :)

In a 3 quart sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat, and then cook the chopped onions until they're soft.

Add the garlic, potatoes and curry paste. Cook, stirring constantly until everything is blended and the curry paste is fragrant - about 3 minutes. Mmmm...it's smelling good!

Increase the heat to high, and add the broth and water. Once it starts boiling, turn the stove down to low, partially cover, and let the soup simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the pumpkin and peanut butter. Stir until it's all blended, and you're ready to go!

I love this soup because of the blend of flavors - the slight sweetness of the pumpkin with the heat of the curry paste is fabulous!

Another way to serve this would be with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt in the bowl. Heavenly creaminess :)

Before I go I want to say a word about last week's ACFW conference. Of course I had a wonderful time - one of the highlights was giving our own Mindy a big hug :) But most important? Meeting and talking with my editors and agent face to face. There's just something about that personal connection that can't be duplicated in an e-mail!

Have a great Monday!