Thai Inspired Pumpkin Coconut Holiday Ale Soup
With the time shift from Summer to Fall, hard squashes, holiday ales and lots of spices enter our kitchens. Bringing these different ingredients together creates a soul warming soup that captures the time of year was the goal of this recipe. Taking an unorthodox approach to season this soup, I created a Thai paste brings heat from chilies, spices like kafir lime leaves, nutmeg, cumin and coriander, plus ginger, garlic, shallots and white peppercorns to the table. These flavors work to add lots of character to this soup that can be used as a starter or served as a main course.
To play up some of the characteristics that beer has, I deconstructed what beer is. This recipe shares the technique on how to make a beer foam, that is used to garnish the finished soup.
For more on this seasonal brew from Anderson Valley Brewing Co.
- 2 tablespoon oil, peanut
- 2 each onions, yellow, medium sized, peeled and sliced
- 4 each shallots peeled and sliced
- 1/3 cup Thai Paste click recipe or store bought
- 29 ounce pumpkin purée, organic 2 cans
- 12 ounce coconut cream or milk, if not available.
- 32 ounce Anderson Valley Winter Solstice Ale, or other holiday spiced ale
- 1 each tangerine, zest and juice
- 4 ounce Anderson Valley Winter Solstice Ale, or other holiday spiced ale
- 1 teaspoon Lecite from El Buli Texturas line or Will Power LECITHIN
- 6 teaspoon pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 6 pinches Cyrus Black Flaked Salt, or other specialty salt
- 6 sprig cilantro, fresh
- In a medium sized pot over medium heat, add peanut oil. Once the oil starts to ripple with heat, add onions and shallots, stirring often too lightly caramelize, about 7 - 9 minutes. Add the Thai paste (or store bought version to your tastes. If using a store version, add only a few teaspoons as it is usually stronger in flavor and has more heat), stirring to combine and cook for 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin, coconut milk, Anderson Valley Winter Solstice Ale and tangerine zest; bringing the soup to a simmer. Cook the soup for 15-20 minutes.
- Purée soup with either a hand blender (for a more coarse consistency), food processor or a blender (for a very smooth texture). Adjust seasonings with either more Thai paste for more spice/heat or salt and pepper and add tangerine juice. Serve into bowls, and garnish with pumpkin seeds, ale foam and Cyrus Black Flaked Salt.
- To make the foam, add 4 ounces of beer to a container that is wide enough to fit a hand blender into the base. Add 1 teaspoon of Lecite from El Buli Texturas line or Will Power LECITHIN. Both are a soy lecithin powder that will create a stable foam. Using a hand blender, froth for 1-2 minutes to create foam head, similar to Belgium lace. Let mixture sit for 1 minute before serving, to let any liquid in the foam fall out of suspension.
- Ladle the hot soup into your bowl or cup of choice. Top each with a spoon of the Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice Foam, then a sprinkle of toasted pumpkin seeds (can also candy them or spice them to further enhance the Thai flavors), then dust with the Cyrus Black Flaked Salt and/or cilantro spring. Serve immediately.
I am excited to try out this recipe for Thanksgiving and picked up some Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale to use. How much coconut milk did you add in your recipe? I didn’t see it listed in the ingredients, but then noticed it while reading through the instructions.
Soup was a hit and the black salt was a perfect add for flavor and conversation starter! I ended up using Deschutes Jubilale and substituted herbed stuffing croutons for the pumpkin seeds. Thanks for the great recipe!
Made this for lunch yesterday, wow so good. I couldn’t find the lecite so i skipped the beer foam. I’m not a fan of creamed soup so i only blended half, then cooked a chicken breast in peanut and coconut oil. also added half a hard boiled egg. Upslope Christmas ale was perfect as we don’t get Anderson valley in MT. As for the pumpkin I used one I grew last summer in our garden and roasted myself. I plan on making this again as soon as i order some lecite from amazon to get the full effect.