Creamy coconut ginger pumpkin soup is deliciously nourishing. The warmth of fresh ginger adds a lovely kick to the sweet base of coconut and pumpkin. Make it with your favourite chicken broth or stock, or use a vegetable stock base for a plant based, vegan soup.
Originally published May 2018 | Re-tested, edited, updated June 2023
PLEASE READ THIS RECIPE UPDATE:
- I received quite a bit of feedback about the amount of ginger I suggested to add to this recipe. Many reviewers commented that it was too much. I have made the soup again (and again, and again!) and I think that it was quite a generous amount and also, I provided a poor estimate of the size of the ginger piece required. I have accordingly scaled down the amount of ginger and updated the description. Please note the amount of ginger required is now 20 grams, a small thumb-sized piece. If you read comments prior to May 2022, they have used a bigger quantity of ginger.
- I have also edited the method so that the pumpkin chunks are now roasted in the cinnamon and cumin, rather than adding them to the soup afterwards. I think this improves the flavour as the spices get roasted with the pumpkin – yum! This update was added in June 2023.
This bright coconut ginger pumpkin soup is not only warming temperature-wise; the ginger gives you a spicy warmth too and makes you feel so good inside. Ginger is an incredible spice, and is a traditional remedy for common complaints including colds, indigestion and nausea. Perfect for incorporating into an autumnal soup.
What you will need to make this creamy coconut pumpkin soup
- Pumpkin (some are referred to as squash) – any variety will do! If you have a favourite type of pumpkin then use that. I tend to use butternut (a.k.a. Butternut squash), Jap or Kent pumpkin for making soup. Kent pumpkin was used to make the soup pictured.
- Chicken broth or stock – you can substitute vegetable stock for a vegan/vegetarian soup. If you are watching your salt intake, a low sodium broth will work.
- Coconut milk – for ultimate creaminess I do recommend using a full fat coconut milk, but reduced fat coconut milk will still work really well. I try to use pure coconut milk without any added gums or thickeners. To be clear, I’m referring to canned coconut milk, not coconut milk from a carton that you might use for cereal or coffee.
- Fresh ginger – an absolute essential ingredient in this soup, you only need a small amount and trust me the flavour is totally incredible. Together with the coconut, this takes the pumpkin soup to a whole new level.
- Ground cumin and ground cinnamon – these dried spices complement the pumpkin perfectly and also work to really transform a simple soup into something special.
- Extra virgin olive oil – use this to roast the pumpkin. Coconut oil will also work but my preferred oil for roasting is extra virgin olive oil.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Oh and don’t forget, you’ll probably want a lovely thick slice of toast to have alongside the soup!
See the ingredient card for the ingredient quantities.
How to make ginger pumpkin soup with a blender
Step 1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a large tray with baking paper.
Step 2. Peel the pumpkin and cut into even-sized chunks. Place on the lined baking tray. Sprinkle over the cumin, cinnamon and add a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Drizzle over the olive oil and toss it all around with your hands to coat the pumpkin. Roast in the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until the pumpkin is super soft and starting to caramelise at the edges.
Step 3. While the pumpkin is cooling a little, peel the ginger and gather the rest of the ingredients. I have included a photo below showing you the approximate size of the ginger piece you should use. The piece of ginger, peeled, is pictured next to a teaspoon to help you visualise the required size.
Step 4. Place cooked pumpkin, chicken broth/stock, coconut milk and ginger into the blender jug. Blend until super smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Step 5. To serve, heat a portion of the soup in a saucepan over the stove (or microwave the soup if that’s more convenient for you). Enjoy!
Cooking tips, swaps and serving suggestions for coconut pumpkin soup
It is so incredibly easy to make this coconut ginger pumpkin soup. All you need to do is roast the pumpkin and then…blend! Literally, that’s it. The rest of the ingredients don’t need cooking, so you simply whizz everything together until smooth.
- I usually make this soup in my Vitamix which actually has a cool “soup” function that heats up the soup, too.
- If you do not have a similar high speed blender, I would recommend putting the ingredients in a large saucepan and using an immersion blender aka a stick blender. They are quick and easy and as a bonus, the soup is already in a saucepan so you can warm it on the stove right away!
- I don’t recommend making too many swaps or substitutions to this recipe. The ingredients list is very short and each of those ingredients serves a purpose! The only swap that really works is swapping the chicken stock for a vegetable stock, if you want to make a vegetarian/vegan soup.
Serve this healthy pumpkin soup with a thick piece of toast, obviously. I also really like to add some shredded chicken or roasted chickpeas on top to boost the protein content. You could also serve it with some boiled eggs for a protein hit. This will help the soup become a more balanced, satisfying meal!
I really hope that you enjoy this creamy, spiced, wonderfully delicious coconut pumpkin soup. Years and years since originally posting this recipe, I am STILL OBSESSED. It’s glorious! Please let me know if you make it – drop me a comment or take a snap and share it on Instagram.
p.s. make extra roasted pumpkin and you can also prep this Honey Roast Pumpkin Quinoa Salad!
PLEASE NOTE: As outlined above at the beginning of this blog post, I have reviewed, re-tested, re-measured and finally tweaked the method for this pumpkin soup recipe. Please note many of the reader comments below do relate to the original recipe and I have since made edits to improve the clarity of my instructions and most importantly… improve the end result of the soup!
Coconut and Ginger Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram pumpkin – any variety will do, I used Kent pumpkin for the soup pictured
- 500 mL chicken broth or stock – substitute vegetable stock for a vegan/vegetarian soup
- 250 mL coconut milk
- 20 grams fresh ginger (1 SMALL thumb sized piece)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for roasting the pumpkin – can also use coconut oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ (350℉) and line a large tray with baking paper.
- Peel the pumpkin and cut into even-sized chunks. Place on the lined baking tray. Sprinkle over the cumin, cinnamon and add a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Drizzle over the olive oil and toss it all around with your hands to coat the pumpkin. Roast in the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until the pumpkin is super soft and starting to caramelise at the edges.
- While the pumpkin is cooling a little, peel the ginger and gather the rest of the ingredients.
- Place cooked pumpkin, chicken broth/stock, coconut milk and ginger into the blender jug. Blend until super smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- To serve, heat a portion of the soup in a saucepan over the stove (or microwave the soup if that’s more convenient for you). Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This was great, but LOTS of work if you are using raw pumpkin. I see you list prep time as 10 min. but it took me over 45 min. to cut, scrape and peel—with a knife—peeler won’t work on curved surfaces very well. I felt in danger from my own knife as the pumpkin is so hard, lol. Plus, the oven time was over twice the time given. Yes, the oven was at 190 C or 350 F.
Anyway, this was quite tasty and I’d make it again IF I could muster the nerve to attack another raw pumpkin. Good blend of flavors! I just put it all in a regular blender and it worked fine. Served with Naan bread I made.
Hi Michelle- you can remove the seeds and roast the pumpkin with the skin on and then, when it is cool, scrape it off the skin with a sharp edged spoon because it will be soft and mushy. Much quicker – 5 minutes to chop it up. Great soup.
Hi Cassie, thanks for this message and yes you are exactly right, I tend to do your method too which is why the prep time is listed like it is. This discussion is a good reminder though that I should be more specific in my instructions and I’ve marked this blog post for revision.
When I was a kid my mom roasted our pumpkin with the skin on. Make sure and prick the skin all over with a fork. When it comes out of the oven the skin just pulls away. She also ,sometimes , used the non-spiced canned pumpkin if she was super busy.
Love this recipe. I have done a few pumpkin soups but this is one of my favourites now. Roasting gives the soup a nice depth of flavour that you cant get otherwise. I love the addition of ginger. Pumpkin and ginger are such a good combo. Right at the end I added juice of a lime. Yum. It balanced out the sweet of the coconut milk . Thanks Monique for sharing 🙂
Hello Everyone,
I just made this soup for the first time. My taste buds had an explosion with so much flavor with the new updates made to the recipe. This is one for the books. I used fresh pumpkins from the garden that I had already prepared for storage but still did the 45 minutes in the oven with the seasons, I wanted to can some soup to have for work during the winter, and with this, I could not go wrong on those cold days. Thank you so much.
This is the best pumpkin soup I’ve ever made. Thank you so much for such an easy and delicious recipe! It’s divine 🥰🤤
Absolutely delicious!
Thank you so much!!
Thank you, it’s delicious. Is it suitable to freeze?
Hi Linda, yes it will freeze well! Thank you so much for your lovely feedback!
I previously roasted pumpkin and used an immersion blender to puree it, is this recipe still possible with the puree I have stored in the fridge? Also, I drained the pumpkin water out, can I use this as the broth for the recipe?
This is delicious I did sprinkle the ginger and spices (cumin and Tumeric) over the pumpkin with salt and pepper and roasted it all in the oven together I also roasted a red onion that I chopped up roughly to add to it. It’s the most deliciously tasty soup. Thank you for sharing
great post site
Beautiful soup. I added some lentils to make it thicker. Thank you for sharing!
Absolutely beautiful – made it for lunch using oven cooked pumpkin that I had in the freezer. Will definitely continue to make it!
Proportions are all wrong. I like ginger but the amount of ginger using the g measurement was so much that we had to tip the soup out. No one in our family found it edible.
I do agree about the proportions and I don’t mean just ginger… I have done this soup few times before and always realized that it turns out that bland that I need to spice it up myself (I like medium spicy actually). Weird that just one person has mentioned ginger so far. On the other hand, it’s nice that there was an adjustment made. I use almost (not measuring, just prioritizing the taste) 2 tsp of cinnamon, around 3 tsp of curcum, 1 tsp of cumin and 1 tsp of nutmeg. I also use slightly more pumpkin and add the full can of coconut milk plus one sachet of creamy coconut. I also use minced ginger instead of chunks and around 60 g is totally fine. More stock to make it less resembling to babyfood and voila! Even my boyfriend who dislikes puree soups likes it this way.
Very easy to make and tasty soup I added a grind of dried chillies just before serving 🤤
So sorry that I disturb you, can you please say where did you find this bowls?This soup looks so delicious! Can not wait to try it with coconut milk
Hi Viktoria, thanks for your message! I purchased these bowls from a website called Minor Goods but I’m not sure if it’s still in business anymore. 🙂
This recipe looks so good, but would it be very difficult to make the ingredients list for us Americans who don’t use kilos or milliliter? I am just unsure of the proportions! Thank you!
I made the US conversion by consulting Google, and that was easier than I expected. The soup was also simple to make, but I was a bit intimidated by comments about the ginger being bitter, so I might not have used enough because I found the soup to be bland and missing something. But I was eager to cook with coconut milk, which I have never done, and that was a pleasant and good experience. I did try sautéing onions and the ginger, cumin and cinnamon. The scents were lovely. I just am not experienced enough to now what to add. I have made a pumpkin soup with orange which I like better, I think. I might add more ginger to the leftovers. However, I will try this recipe again.
Hi Monique;
Nice soup, can I use coconut cream instead of coconut milk? thanks
Hi Nadereh, yes you can 🙂 As it’s a bit more rich than coconut milk you could reduce the amount slightly and add some stock or water to make up the liquid. Or just have a more creamy soup!
I used coconut cream (have only just seen Moniques comment) – it was delicious.
Is the ginger weight correct. I used half and found it left an unpleasant after taste otherwise it would have been lovely
Hi Tania, I am quite certain it is correct however I did measure the ginger before I peeled it and that would have actually significantly affected the weight and size of the ginger that actually went into the soup, on reflection. I am going to measure the ginger again and edit the recipe – thanks for pointing this out. If it does seem a bit too much you can also try frying off the ginger before adding it to the soup which will mellow out the flavour a bit too and make it more sweet, less sharp. 🙂
Pumpkin soup is my favourite go to, and this adds a different twist.
For those wanting protein, a few handfuls of red lentils adds this and barely affects the recipe.
Thankyou for this.
Great suggestion with the red lentils! 🙂
Adore this recipe Monique! I’ve been eating packet pumpkin soup for too long now, and thought I’d try my hand at this.
Super easy and delicious recipe. I marinated the pumpkin with a bit of honey and paprika to caramelise them a little bit more.
I did fry the spices, however, next time I’ll try without to see the different aromas that ooze through.
It’s so creamy – thank you for this!
Thank you so much for this lovely comment Georgia! I really appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback. Honey and pumpkin is such an amazing combo, that would have added such a delicious edge to the soup 🙂
I had some leftover pumpkin purée in the freezer an used this recipe to make soup. The fam called it a win! Thank you!
So after eating an absolutely delicous pumpkin coconut soup in Bali I have been trying different recipes at home trying to replicate it. This one has been the Best so far. I fried the cumin, cinnamon and ginger in some olive oil and added it to the blitzer with the rest. Its is yum! 9n my second plate now.
Thanks for the lovely feedback Stef, I appreciate it so much! A few people have been frying the spices together first and I agree that is a great idea 🙂
Would canned pumpkin work?
Hi Jen, it possibly would though I haven’t used it myself. I am not sure if canned pumpkin gets the exact same flavour as roasted pumpkin (as roasted gets those nice browned bits and caramelises etc) but you could give it a try!
This soup is very nice and easy to make. I’ve made it twice and it was better when I fried the ginger, cumin and cinnamon in some butter prior to adding it to the soup. Uncooked, they add a bit of an unpleasant bitter flavour.
Hi Anita, thank you for your feedback! The ginger can be quite sharp I agree, which I like personally but I can understand that it might come off as bitter. I think if you just cook the ginger it will mellow out the soup quite a bit. 🙂
Gosh I wish I’d seen your comment before making it. The ginger made it so bitter. Tried everything to improve it but I guess it’s too late. Seems like such a waste now ☹️ It’s not the lovely fiery flavour I was expecting.
Thank you for sharing this recipe.. making it now and can’t wait.. I used coconut oil to roast the pumpkin and put the cumin and cinnamon on it while baking so see how that goes ! Yum!!!
Thank you so much Christie! That’s a great idea to add the spices to the pumpkin while it’s baking, too easy 🙂 Hope the soup turned out well!
I’ve just made this for my lunch. Delicious! Thanks for such a fantastic recipe.
So happy to hear this Mary! Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback, I really appreciate it 🙂
I am pinning this gorgeous soup for our fall season! I love the combination of pumpkin and ginger (and any soup with coconut milk) so I know I will love this.
Thanks so much Meredith! I love coconut milk in soups too – it adds that creamy, super satisfying element!
These pics are wonderful! And I love ginger and pumpkin together. Sounds like a great dish.
Thank you so much Katie 🙂 Ginger and pumpkin is a classic, delicious combination isn’t it.
What a beautiful, delicious looking warm soup! I love finding new ways like this to enjoy the benefits of homemade broth.
Thank you so much, Cathy 🙂 I love finding new ways of incorporating broth too, it adds that extra layer of goodness to a soup!
This is so beautiful! This is a great meal prep dish to help me eat healthy all week!
🙂 Thank you! Yep I make this for meal prep all the time myself, it’s a good one to keep in the freezer!
This soup is stunning, I just love the colors! The spices sound like such a great combo too!
Thanks so much Kari! The ginger in this soup is so lovely 🙂
Wow, the bright contrasting colors in your photos are so pretty! I love these flavors, too. Such a lovely soup.
Thank you so much Megan 🙂 This is a favourite soup of mine, sometimes I throw a little sweet potato in there too!
Gosh, this is so pretty. Almost too pretty to eat! Almost… 😉
Haha emphasis on the almost! Pretty food tastes better 😛
This soup is the most stunning color!
Thank you so much Linda! Gotta love a glowing soup!
What a beautiful soup! Pumpkin soup is my favorite so I know I’ll love this.
Aw, thanks so much Jean! I’m a big pumpkin soup fan too, never gets old.
gorgeous stuff! I simply adore pumpkin and winter squash, and in soup is a natural! Slurp!! I just put all my winter squash seedlings in the garden…can’t WAIT!!
Tessa I love that you guys call some pumpkin “winter squash”! We don’t use that term in Australia but I really like it. I am obsessed with pumpkin too!
Mmmm… I love the pumpkin ginger combo!
It’s so warming and lovely, isn’t it!