Pumpkin Miso Soup

Pumpkin Miso Soup, the humble pumpkin soup with a twist. This vegan, delicious and creamy soup is prepared with miso paste and ginger to impart lovely strong oriental flavours and coconut milk to balance the flavours and add a touch of creaminess to the soup. This soup makes a great lunch or starter for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Pumpkin Miso Soup

We are well into November and mother nature is doing her job perfectly, leaves turning, days are getting shorter, darker and nights are getting cooler, temperatures are dropping into one digit numbers. In my house, hot beverages are on demands and quite a few times masala chai is brewing. And we are definitely craving for hearty and nutritious soups.

Currently, soups are on demands in my house not only because cold weather is here but we just finished celebrating Diwali, that means we indulged in rich and calories loaded food, for a couple of days vegetables and fruit were ignored, ghee, sugar, paneer and potatoes were ruling my kitchen. Our bodies are in need of healthy meals too. So, my plan is to cook so many vegetables and the perfect way to include so many vegetables in the diet is with soup. You may see a couple of more soup recipes here. Today we are talking about Pumpkin Miso Soup.

AUTUMN AND PUMPKIN

As soon as autumn arrives, most of us think about its produce and pumpkin pops in our mind, there are many more autumn fruits and veg foods in the market but seems like pumpkin rules. Maybe because of Halloween and bonfire night. Pumking decorating and carving takes place around this season, although pumpkin picking, a somewhat American concept, has really taken off in the UK and Europe and what a better way to put leftover pumpkin in a good recipe.

PUMPKIN SOUP

Although there are hundreds of pumpkin recipes are out there, both sweet and savoury somehow the humble pumpkin soup recipes get more attraction and often claimed to be a winter superhero. Pumpkin is a versatile vegetable and nothing goes waste, you don’t have to discard the pumpkin skin or seeds. Once it is roasted, steamed or boiled use in any recipe, whether it is sweet or savoury. Honestly, though, there is nothing like holding a warm bowl of pumpkin soup on a chilly night. Being a bland and mildly sweet vegetable, pumpkin blends so well with any flavours. Also, it bulks up the soup and lends a shiny and silky texture to the soup. A classic soup is that is so easy to whip up, but there are many fancied up version or jazzed up ones are pretty cool to enjoy as well.

MISO PASTE

Miso paste or Miso is a traditional and hugely popular Japanese seasoning. It is commonly made with fermented soya beans. It has a salty, pungent and earthy taste and used in many ways, use it as a dressing, marinating, seasoning and can be used in lots of other ways to add flavours to the Japanese dishes. Not sure how true this that Miso and soy sauce were invented by Japanese monks to add savoury (umami) flavour to the vegetables, which adds depth of flavours to any savoury dish. There are a couple of varieties miso pastes available in the authentic stores, but in most stores, a common light yellow colour Miso paste is available, which is versatile and works fine for all the dishes.

THE BASE

Obviously, pumpkin soup isn’t pumpkin soup without pumpkin in there, and of course, we need miso paste as well. Like all the other vegetable pumpkin is a powerhouse of goodness, easily available and inexpensive. Also, a couple of basic vegetables come useful for this recipe such as garlic and onion.

THE ADDITIONS

There are a couple of key ingredients is must for this delicious and heart Pumpkin Miso Soup.

• Vegetable stock – homemade is always better but pushed for time store-bought low sodium works fine or stock cubes can do a perfect job too.
• Red Chilli – To jazz up this bland vegetable, fresh red chilli does wonders and lends that extra spice flavours.
• Coconut milk- Because this soup is vegan, we are using coconut milk. Coconut milk gives this soup a creamy and silky texture and flavours.

ALTERNATIVE TO PUMPKIN

STEP BY STEP RECIPE PICTURES

Wash the pumpkin with clean water and cut into big chunks, it is up to you if you want to leave the skin or not. I have as skin has valuable nutrition. Roughly chop the onion and garlic. Place it on the baking tray, sprinkle some oil and salt and roast everything in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until caramelised and soft. In a pan heat oil, add roughly chopped ginger and red chilli, fry for few seconds. Add roasted pumpkin, garlic and onion. Mix well then add vegetable stock and bring it to boil. Turn off the heat and blend it with a hand blender or use liquidiser.

Pour the soup in the pan again, and add coconut milk, turn the heat on. In a bowl mix miso paste and a couple of tablespoons of water and make a thin paste, add into the soup and gently heat the soup. Season the soup with salt and lime juice. Serve in a serving bowl, garnish the soup with the freshly chopped coriander and lightly toasted pumpkin seeds.

Once you’ll taste this satisfying autumn soup, you’ll never want to eat plain pumpkin soup. I always make soup in big batches and freeze it for later use.

Pumpkin Miso Soup

ingredients

instructions

NOTES:

* Use single cream if you want to make this soup vegetarian. 
** You can use toasted sesame seeds too.
This soup can be made in big batches and can be a freeze.

Make ultra creamy rice kheer in the Instant Pot in less than 40 minutes. Less stirring and perfectly cooked kheer that will be ready with little effort. Also included is a traditional stove top pressure cooker method.

Note: This recipe was originally posted in January 2010 as a stove top pressure cooker recipe but I have updated the post to include the more popular Instant Pot method.

Rice kheer is an Indian dessert made from staple ingredients such as milk, rice and sugar. It’s usually flavoured with cardamom or saffron and garnished with nuts.

For Indian kheer, you do not need to grind down the rice. This is more common in Pakistani recipes and is known as phirni. I’ve made a fusion caramel phirni .

Ingredients notes

Full recipe in the recipe card below

Rice – For kheer, basmati is perfect, but other white rice will work too. English rice pudding recipes use short grain rice such as rice pudding rice or arborio. You could also try the Indian variety gobindbhog rice which is short grain, sticky and aromatic. Note that different rice types and brands all cook at different rates. My preference is to wash the rice before using in the recipe. Some choose not too as it makes the kheer even richer and more creamy.

Milk – For a rich and creamy taste whole milk is must. If using semi-skimmed or skimmed, you may want to add single or double cream or evaporated milk.

Sugar – I use granulated white sugar.

Spices and Nuts – To add Indian flavour to the kheer, I add cardamom. I’ve only used a little saffron to garnish. For garnishing, I use a mix of almonds and pistachio. Optionally, you can swirl over some Instant Pot strawberry and rhubarb jam once the kheer has totally cooled down.

Add a flavour variation by making mango kheer – mango pulp added after Kheer is cooked and cooled down totally.

Stovetop Pressure Cooker Method & A note from my Mum, Jagruti

Since the stovetop pressure cooker arrived in Indian kitchens with its little recipe books, one dish always stood out. It was kheer. I still remember when my mum bought a 6-litre Hawkins pressure cooker. She made kheer in it that very day and could not praise it enough. From then on, the only way she made kheer was in a pressure cooker.

Naturally, I picked up that method too. You might wonder about the taste or texture, but this pressure-cooker kheer is every bit as delicious as the traditional version. It’s creamy, rich and completely irresistible. And it comes together with minimal effort – no sweating, no stress, and no standing over the stove for hours.

You’ll need a 5 litre pressure cooker to make kheer for 4 people. Try not to use a small pressure cooker as there is a chance that the milk mixture will overflow.

Method:

1. Bring milk to a boil in a pressure cooker without closing the lid.
2. Add ghee, sugar and washed rice and stir the mixture till sugar dissolves in the milk.
3. Close the cooker with the lid and bring it up to full pressure, reduced heat to low and cook for 10-12 minutes.
4. Let the pressure cooker cool down naturally.
5. Open the lid and stir the kheer, add cream or evaporated milk and cardamom.
6. Place the cooker once again on a heat and simmer ( without the lid) the kheer for a couple of minutes more or until it reaches a creamy consistency.
7. Serve hot or cold in a serving bowl, garnish it with slivered pistachio, almonds, saffron threads, edible silver or gold foil and edible rose petals.

Serving Suggestions

Kheer is often made during festive occasions or as a prasad. It can be served and enjoyed at any temperature as a dessert.

In our family we serve kheer with deep fried poori along with aloo matar or aloo chole (chana bateta nu saak) at breakfast.

Gujaratis also served with round and soft Gujarati rotlis at religious ceremonies too.

Instant Pot Kheer

Equipment

• 6 qt Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 2 cup Milk whole
• ⅛ cup Basmati rice
• ½ cup Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Ghee
• 100 millilitres Double cream or evaporated milk (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Cardamom powder
• 3-4 tablespoon Nuts Slivered
• 7-8 strands Saffron optional

Instructions

• Add 1/4 cup cold water in the INSTANT POT inner pot.
• Add 2 cup whole milk, 1/8 cup basmati rice, and 1/2 cup sugar.
• Close the lid and select the ‘PORRIDGE’ button and set for 20 minutes.
• Wait for the pressure to release naturally before opening the lid.
• Give it a quick stir and switch on ‘SAUTE’ mode for 5 minutes.
• Add cardamom, chopped nuts and cream if using.
• Allow the kheer to thicken a little if it needs, then remove from the heat.

Notes

Nutrition

PLEASE NOTE: Nutritional values are estimated by a computer and may vary based on ingredients and portion sizes. For personalised dietary advice, please consult a qualified healthcare professional.