- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil divided
- 1 sugar pumpkin (or kuri squash) 4 pounds
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 2 stalks lemongrass tied together with kitchen twine
- 3 kaffir lime leaves torn
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 red chili (such as cayenne or Thai) minced
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 2 t-spoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice freshly squeezed
- 1 t-spoon kosher salt divided (depending on saltiness of your stock)
- 1 lime cut into wedges
- About 1/2 - 2/3 cup roasted & salted cashews chopped
- 2 green onions thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
- 1 - 2 red chilies minced
- 1 - 2 kaffir lime leaves midrib removed and minced (optional)
- 2 - 4 naan breads depending on size
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 t-spoon kosher salt
- 1/8 t-spoon ground cumin
- 1/8 t-spoon ground coriander seed
- Mix the garlic, oil, salt and spices for the naan together and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400°.
- Cut the pumpkin in half from the stem to the bottom and scoop out the seeds. Rub it down with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil--inside and out--and sprinkle evenly with 1/2 t-spoon kosher salt. Place cut-side down on a baking sheet and roast for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the squash is tender.
- In the meantime, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Drop in the chopped onion once hot and saute until lightly browned--about 10 minutes.
- Smack the bundled lemongrass stalks with the back/spine of your knife to crush them slightly and throw it, along with the lime leaves, minced red chili and garlic into the pot. Cook another 2 minutes.
- Add in the curry paste and stir it into the onions before pouring in the coconut milk. Whisk it together until the curry paste melts into the pale, creamy milk, before pouring in the vegetable stock and fish sauce. Bring this to a boil before turning the heat to low and simmer.
- The pumpkin should be done by this point, or not far behind, so when it's ready scoop the flesh from the skin and add it to the simmering soup. Let it all simmer together for 20 minutes before removing the lime leaves and pureeing it (I use an immersion blender but you can use a regular stand-up blender, too. Just be sure to do this in batches and be careful to not overfill the blender--you don't want to be burned by soup popping the top off the blender and shooting all over the kitchen!)
- 10 minutes before you puree the soup, smear the naan with the garlic-and-oil mixture from before and bake on a baking sheet until warm and aromatic.
- Finish the soup off with the fresh lime juice before serving up in big bowls with naan on the side, and an array of colorful and flavorful garnishes.
-If you want to make this truly vegetarian/vegan, you can leave out the fish sauce—just be sure to add extra lime juice and salt to make up for loosing out of the salty sourness the fish sauce would bring. I’ve heard that some people use Worcestershire sauce as a fish sauce substitute but, for one, there’s anchovy in Worcestershire so that defeats your purpose, and two, I just can’t see the two as being interchangeable. There may be a worthy application where this substitution is appropriate but I really don’t think that it’s here.
-To make this gluten free, make sure the brand of stock and fish sauce are gluten free. Most fish sauces are, and so are a lot of stocks, but just double check. Obviously, the naan is out of the questions unless you can find a gluten free option (made out of garbanzo flour or something). You could always cook up some white rice to serve alongside the soup and everyone can just add it to their own bowls to make this a little more filling.