For a good, warming soup, there is (almost) nothing like pumpkin. Until well-advanced spring or at least until there is a cold night, a pumpkin soup is what you need to warm yourself up. Our creamy pumpkin daikon soup is an easy variant of the classic, simple pumpkin soup: here, the root (daikon) helps get rid of the excess yin and moisture typical of the cold season and the pumpkin has an anti-stress effect.
My pumpkin daikon soup is extremely simple not just because it requires very few ingredients that are usually in your pantry or very easy to source, but because it basically cooks itself in a single pot!
In our family, we love soups, especially when the cold season begins. Whether it’s simple-2-ingredient soups or more complete like this adzuki beans and Tuscan cavolo nero soup.
Creamy Pumpkin Daikon Soup Ingredients – Tips
- The pumpkin. For this pumpkin daikon soup, I used Delica type but if you can’t find this and can source any other type of your choice, it will do great. Hokkaido, butternut, and whatever pumpkin you can find where you live are all good options.
- Herbs and spices. I added a bit of curry and sage to my soup but other herbs and spices that go well with pumpkin are paprika, rosemary, turmeric, thyme, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I often like to add cinnamon in my pumpkin soups but in this one, I didn’t because I’m not sure it goes well with the daikon.
Possible variations
Being this pumpkin and daikon soup so easy and made with so few ingredients, it offers great potential for variations and different options. While I wouldn’t replace the main ingredients, if you really don’t have the daikon, you can use a potato to make it creamy.
If you want to add some protein intake, you can either add some cooked beans or chickpeas, while if you need some carbs, what I usually enjoy in this soup is buckwheat.
On another note, if you don’t have daikon and want a super easy comfort food to round off your day, you can try my easy one-ingredient pumpkin soup!
Properties and health benefits
- The pumpkin. The queen of winter veggies, even though sweet in flavor, the pumpkin contains very little sugar but it’s perfect if you are trying to detox from sugar or address your emotional eating. Poor in calories, it’s rich in vitamins, minerals and fibers. When it comes to pumpkins, also the peel is very beneficial for your health because rich in antifungus properties apparently able to protect our body from several types of fungus including Candida albicans. Of course it’s not possible to use the peel in every recipe, such as this creamy pumpkin daikon soup, but if you like to bake your pumpkin, you can brush the peel, especially when it’s not too thick, and leave it on to bake: it’s delicious.
- The daikon. Not very common in our food stores, the daikon is a Japanese root and is quite frequently used in the macrobiotic diet that I sometimes follow. The daikon, too, carries plenty of beneficial properties. It’s mucolytic, so helps decrease and thin the mucus, perfect for the winter season. Rich in calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, vitamins of the group B, and fiber, it also helps burn deposited fat. Daikon is also rich in folic acid and phosphorus and it’s diuretic and detoxing. It can be consumed fresh or dried. To make our pumpkin daikon soup creamy, I used fresh daikon. To use it dried, I soak it in water for 20 minutes, then I sautée it in the pan with other veggies. Dried daikon helps burn the fat deposited in depth around the organs and is detoxing for the liver. In specific stores, you can also find it fermented in salt and vinegar. This way it’s great to aid digestion, just like other fermented veggies.
- Pumpkin seeds. Even the seeds are rich in health benefits including relaxing, anti-inflammatory, and diuretic, so adding them to your pumpkin daikon soup will only add to your health. Particularly this soup can be served in many different ways, and topping it up with some toasted pumpkin seeds is one of my favorite choices.
Creamy Pumpkin Daikon Soup Recipe Directions
Equipment
- 1 pot
- 1 immersion blender
Ingredients
- 500 gr pumpkin 17 oz (roughly)
- 1 small daikon
- 1/2 onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- salt to taste
- sage and/or rosemary to taste, either fresh or dried optional
- turmeric or curry optional
Instructions
- Clean and peel the pumpkin and the daikon and cut them into small cubes. No need to make exactly the same since we will be blending everything.
- Thinly slice the onion and chop the garlic. If you don't want to blend the garlic with everything, don't chop it but simply toast it in the oil and then remove it.
- Heat up the oil into the pot and add the garlic and the sliced onion. Brown everything on medium fire stirring and paying attention not to burn it.
- If you are adding the herbs and spices, add them now and stir to toast them a little. Curry adds some great flavor.
- Add the pumpkin and the daikon and stir for a few minutes to give them the flavor of toasted garlic and onion, and herbs and spices. If you left the garlic whole, remove it now.
- Cover everything with boiling water or vegetable stock and cook for at least 15 minutes on low to medium heat, or until the veggies are soft.
- When the veggies are soft, remove them from the fire, let them cool down for a few minutes and blend everything with an immersion blender until it becomes a velvety cream.
- You can serve in many different ways: with a drizzle of olive oil, a few drops of high-quality, organic soy sauce if you think it needs a bit more salt so that you don't add it in crystal form. You can also sprinkle some fresh parsley or coriander on top or some pumpkin seeds or pieces of toasted bread to add some crunchy.
WANT TO SAVE IT FOR LATER? PIN IT TO YOUR BOARD!
