A whole can of coconut milk goes into Hairy Bikers pumpkin soup, and there is no stock at all. Mums Still Know Best builds it on pumpkin, ginger, thyme and half a Scotch bonnet, cooked in plain water. It serves four to six at around 205 calories a bowl.
They did not write this one. The book credits it to the Growing Together project at St George’s Community Hub in Birmingham, where local families grow organic vegetables and take turns cooking their own traditional recipes. This one came from Carriacou, a tiny island off the coast of Grenada.
The pumpkin is cooked until it turns to pulp, and that word matters. No blender appears anywhere in the recipe, so the cubes simmer in water until they collapse on their own, and the coconut milk only goes in once they have.
Hairy Bikers Pumpkin Soup
Description
Coconut milk goes in last and only simmers for five to ten minutes. Before that, cubes of pumpkin cook in plain water with onion, ginger, garlic, thyme and Scotch bonnet until they break down. This Hairy Bikers pumpkin soup needs no blender and no stock.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Prepare the pumpkin: Cut the pumpkin in half, then into wedges. Peel and deseed each wedge, then cut the flesh into cubes of about 2.5cm.
- Start the pan: Put the pumpkin cubes in a pan with the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli. Strip the leaves from the thyme and add those too.
- Simmer to a pulp: Pour in about 400ml of water, bring to the boil and cook until the pumpkin has turned to a pulp.
- Add the coconut milk: Pour in the coconut milk and season with salt, then turn the heat down and simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes.
- Serve: Taste for salt and serve. Chunks of breadfruit or sweet potato can go in towards the end if you want it more substantial.
FAQs
How much pumpkin is half a large one?
The book gives no weight, which is normal for a recipe passed on by hand rather than written for a test kitchen. Aim for about 1kg of prepared flesh, so start with a pumpkin of around 2kg.
There is a reason it says half. In the book they serve the soup inside the hollowed-out shell, so the other half becomes the bowl. Scrape it clean, sit it on a board and ladle the soup in.
How hot is half a Scotch bonnet?
Hot, but less than it sounds, because the seeds and white pith carry most of the heat and the recipe removes both. What is left is the fruity, almost floral taste Scotch bonnets are grown for.
Use a quarter if you are unsure, since you cannot take it back out. Their chicken yassa uses a whole one alongside ginger, which shows how far that heat can go when nobody holds back.
Do I need a blender?
No, and that is the whole method. Cooking the pumpkin in water until it collapses gives you a soup that is thick but slightly uneven, with soft pieces still in it.
Their butternut squash soup is the one to blend, and its ingredient list reads butternut squash or pumpkin, so you can cook it with the same vegetable you bought for this. That version is Mexican, built on chipotle and lime with cauliflower for body, and it goes completely smooth.
Can I use light coconut milk?
You can, and it cuts the calories, though the soup comes out noticeably thinner. Full-fat coconut milk is the only richness in the recipe, since there is no stock, no cream and no butter anywhere.
Add it at the end as written and keep the heat low. Coconut milk can split if it boils hard. Their massaman curry handles it the same way, going in late at 200ml and never boiling.
What can I add to make it a meal?
The recipe suggests breadfruit or sweet potato, added towards the end so they hold their shape rather than joining the pulp. Both are Caribbean staples and both suit the coconut and chilli.
Breadfruit is hard to find outside a Caribbean grocer, so sweet potato is the practical choice. Cut it into 2.5cm chunks like the pumpkin and give it about 15 minutes. A soft bread roll on the side is how the book photographs it.
