Slow Cooker Thai Chicken and Pumpkin Soup

I would really recommend getting chicken thighs with the bone in for this recipe as it adds flavour and nutrients. However, if you can only get skin on and bone in chicken thighs, remove the skin and crisp it up for half an hour in a hot oven, between two baking sheets lined with parchment. This is great mixed into soft butter or crumbled over pasta.

Serves 4

Prep time 45mins

Cook time 3.5 hours

Ingredients:

Pumpkin:

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 medium pumpkin or butternut squash

2 red onions

Paste:

1 tbsp ground coriander

2 tsp cumin seeds

1.5 tbsp coconut oil

1 banana shallot, roughly chopped

2 Lemongrass, roughly chopped

2 reds chillies, roughly chopped

5 Garlic, peeled

75g Ginger, peeled & roughly chopped

20ml Fish sauce

4 dried kaffir lime leaves

25g Palm sugar

The rest:

300ml hot chicken stock

400ml can of coconut milk

4 bone in chicken thighs

Garnishes:

Spring onions

Chilies

Coriander

Lime wedges

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Peel and cut the pumpkin into 2 inch chunks. Cut the onions into wedges. Put all in a deep roasting pan and toss with the oil, paprika and some seasoning and roast in the hot oven for 30mins until softened and slightly charred.

3. In a dry pan toast cumin seeds and coriander until fragrant.

4. Combine shallot, lemongrass, chillies, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, lime, palm sugar and toasted spices in food processor and pulse until you get a rough paste.

5. Add the coconut oil to the pan that you toasted the spices in. Once melted, add the paste and fry off for 5-10 minutes, stirring regularly, until its fragrant.

6. Tip the paste into the bowl of your slow cooker. Add the stock, coconut milk, the chicken thighs and the roasted pumpkin and onions. Put the slow cooker onto a low/medium heat and let it all simmer for 2-3 hours, your house will be filled with the beautiful Thai scents.

7. Once the chicken and the pumpkin have cooked down you will need to fish out all the chicken bones. Do this by tipping the contents of the slow cooker into a sieve which is resting over a large pan. Pick out the bones and also pull the chicken apart a little as you do this.

8. I like to remove a handful of the chicken and set it aside to add back at the end at this point but thats a matter of preference.

9. Decant the solids into the sauce pan with all those lovely juices and blitz with a stick blender. Alternatively of a super smooth soup, ladle the soup into a high speed blender and blend.

10. Add back the reserved chicken pieces, if using, and season to taste. Serve it sprinkled with picked coriander leaves, finely sliced chillies and spring onions and lime wedges on the side.