Cauliflower and Pumpkin Soup with Ginger and Lemongrass

4.41 from 10 votes

Hearty and warming, this soup is super easy to make in a steam oven, where there's no stirring!

Prep Time10

Cook Time45

Total Time55

Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: cauliflower and pumpkin soup, steam oven soup

Servings:

Calories: 237kcal

3 tbs olive oil or coconut oil
2 leeks sliced (onions are also fine but I love the more gentle flavour of leeks)
2 stalks lemongrass tender bottom parts only, bruised and sliced
2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
A thumb-sized piece ginger roughly chopped
2 tsp ground turmeric or fresh turmeric, if you can find it where you are
½ tsp cayenne pepper optional
1 head cauliflower a large head, around 2lb, broken up into florets and stalks roughly sliced
1.5 lb pumpkin peeled and cut into 2.5cm/1” pieces
1 1/4 cups coconut cream 1 x 9oz/270ml can
4 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock; you may need a little more depending on how thick you want the soup

Set your oven to 248⁰F/120⁰C, combination steam setting. If you have variable steam, use 80%. If not, don't worry! Just set to combi steam at the correct temperature and the oven will figure out the humidity for you.
Put the oil in the bottom of a large casserole pot and tilt to coat evenly. Pile the leeks, lemongrass, ginger and garlic on top of the oil (no need to stir) and place in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove and increase the oven temperature to 356⁰F/180⁰C on combination steam setting.
Sprinkle the turmeric and cayenne pepper over the softened leek mixture, add the cauliflower and then pumpkin (again, don’t worry about stirring).
Return the pot to the oven and cook until the vegetables are very soft and the pumpkin has just started to take on some colour at the edges – anywhere from 25-35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Once the vegetables have cooled slightly, add the coconut cream and the stock and stir gently. Puree with a stick blender - my preferred method because everything stays in the same pot - or run batches through a food processor or blender. I like mine smooth but you could leave the soup slightly chunky. Thin with a little extra stock if it’s too thick.