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Slow cooker pumpkin soup is the ultimate hearty Halloween food, although it’s just as tasty at anytime of the year. Find my recipe for slow cooker pumpkin soup with chilli and coconut below.

If you’re looking for a fright this Halloween, here are some scary stats; over 22 million pumpkins will go to waste after Halloween this year – that’s £32.6 million worth of edible food, thrown straight into the bin.

With this in mind – and being as my creamy sausage pasta in pumpkin sauce and spooky salmon ‘pumpkin’ canapés went down so well – I’m sharing another leftover pumpkin recipe to mark Halloween this year.

Flavoured with creamy coconut and tongue-tingling chilli, this thick, velvety slow cooker pumpkin soup is finished with a dollop of mascarpone or crème fraîche, and a scattering of roasted pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin, coconut and chilli soup shot overhead in a bowl on a wooden chopping board, surrounded by a tea towel, two large pumpkins and a smaller munchkin pumpkin — Guess who couldn’t resist polishing off all their roasted pumpkin seeds and had to use shop-bought seeds for their photo?! They’re just so good… 😀

Hearty Halloween food doesn’t get much better than this, but it tastes just as good at anytime of the year; if you can’t source fresh pumpkin, canned pumpkin is a convenient alternative which can usually be sourced from supermarkets and, failing that, from American confectionery stores.

My inspiration for this soup came from a soup that was made for me by Kim and Lylette Russell of Crayfish Bay Organic Cocoa Estate (which features in my blog post on Grenada Chocolate Festival).

Pumpkin and coconut soup at Crayfish Bay Organic Cocoa Estate, Grenada — The soup that originally inspired my slow cooker pumpkin soup

What is pumpkin soup made of?

Pumpkin soup recipes vary, but the basic version usually calls for pumpkin, onion, garlic, a little olive oil, vegetable or chicken stock, seasoning, herbs, and fresh cream or milk to thicken the broth and add a rich, velvety texture.

However, you can add all kinds of ingredients to your pumpkin soup, with common twists calling for the addition of various spices and vegetables. In my slow cooker pumpkin soup, I use creamed coconut and chilli flakes to add both flavour and texture.

Not only is my soup 100% vegetarian but, as it uses coconut cream as opposed to dairy milk or cream, it’s completely vegan-friendly if you skip the mascarpone or crème fraîche, too.

Here are the ingredients I use to make my slow cooker pumpkin soup:

Ingredients needed to make slow cooker pumpkin soup

What pumpkins are best for soup?

You can use all kinds of pumpkins to make pumpkin soup, including bog-standard carving pumpkins. Generally, however, carving pumpkins will have a lighter colour – often closer to yellow than orange (like the soup you can see in the image directly below). When I’m choosing pumpkins for soup, I prefer to use the deeper orange cooking pumpkins, but it doesn’t really make a huge difference which variety you use.

Slow cooker pumpkin soup with chilli and coconut

If you’re unable to source pumpkin, squash is an excellent substitute.

You can also also make this slow cooker pumpkin soup using canned pureed pumpkin if fresh pumpkin isn’t available, or if you’re just looking to save some time; simply substitute the fresh pumpkin with two cans of canned pumpkin.

Slow cooker pumpkin soup topped with mascarpone and pumpkin seeds

How do you make pumpkin soup in a slow cooker?

Slow cooker season is well and truly upon us. There’s nothing I love more on a blistery autumn day than loading my slow cooker up with ingredients in the morning and letting it bubble away throughout the day, walking through the door to the welcoming waft of home-cooked food in the evening.

While you can prepare this soup on the stove, I find it much easier, quicker and convenient to make it in my slow cooker instead. Once you’ve softened the shallots and garlic in a frying pan, just dump all the ingredients into the slow cooker, and leave it to do its thing for six hours – it really is as easy as that!

What kind of slow cooker is best to use?

I use Swan’s 3.5 litre retro-style slow cooker, which I don’t think is available to purchase anymore. The closest alternative I can find is Russell Hobbs’ Slow Cooker 23200 in stainless steel and silver.

What other equipment do I need?

Although it’s not absolutely essential, a stick blender is really handy for blitzing up soups. While you can transfer the cooked soup mixture into a free-standing blender or food processor instead, using a stick blender means you can leave the soup in the slow cooker while blending it, so you don’t need to use another pot.

Here’s the stick blender I use – it’s a MasterChef Stick Blender with two speeds, ideal for blitzing both soups and sauces.

Pumpkin coconut and chilli soup served in a bowl on a chopping board, scattered with pumpkin seeds and surrounded by a tea towel, two large pumpkins and a smaller munchkin pumpkin

How to prepare a whole pumpkin to use in slow cooker pumpkin soup

Before you start preparing your slow cooker pumpkin soup, peel and chop your pumpkin.

Chopping up a whole pumpkin can be a little intimidating at first but, once you know what to do and you’re armed with a sharp knife, it becomes much easier. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Slice the top and bottom off the pumpkin, so both ends are flat; this makes it much easier and safer to cut.
Peel the entire pumpkin, using a vegetable peeler or small knife.
Carefully slice the pumpkin in half.
Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits, but don’t throw the seeds away – roast them and use them as a garnish later on (they’re delicious for snacking on, too!)
Dice the pumpkin into 1″ cubes, ready to add to the slow cooker.

Once you’ve finished preparing your pumpkin, it’s time to add your ingredients to the slow cooker and start cooking your slow cooker pumpkin soup.

Slow cooker pumpkin soup recipe

Print Pin

5 from 1 vote

Slow cooker pumpkin, coconut and chilli soup

Flavoured with creamy coconut and a pinch of chilli, this thick, velvety slow cooker pumpkin soup really comes into its own with a dollop of mascarpone or crème fraîche, and a scattering of roasted pumpkin seeds.

This is the ideal hot, hearty meal to enjoy on Halloween, but it tastes just as good at anytime of the year!

Course Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine British, Caribbean

Keyword pumpkin, slow cooker, Soup, squash

Prep Time 6 15

Total Time 6 15

Servings bowls

Calories 515kcal

Author Kacie Morgan

Cost £1

Equipment

Slow cooker 3.5 litres
Hand-held stick blender

Ingredients

1 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
3 shallots sliced
1 garlic clove sliced
1.2 kg whole pumpkin (or 850g canned, puréed pumpkin)
1 litre vegetable stock
100 g creamed coconut
¼ tsp red chilli flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
100 g mascarpone or creme fraiche
50 g pumpkin seeds roasted

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick saucepan. Saute the shallots and garlic over a low to medium heat for around ten minutes, until softened and slightly caramelised, stirring continuously to avoid burning. Remove from the heat and carefully transfer the shallots and garlic into your slow cooker.
Add the pumpkin, stock, creamed coconut and chilli flakes. Replace the lid and switch the slow cooker on, set to auto. Cook for around six hours.
Once the pumpkin is cooked through, blitz into a smooth, velvety soup. Alternatively, allow to cool and transfer to a food processor or blender.
Garnish with 100g mascarpone or creme fraiche, and 50g roasted pumpkin seeds. Serve with hunks of freshly baked, buttered sourdough for a warming autumnal meal.

Notes

Use either canned or fresh, whole pumpkin – whichever is most convenient for you.
If you can’t find any pumpkin, you can use butternut squash instead
Some people add the onions and shallots straight to the slow cooker, without shallow frying them first. Personally, I find that cooking them beforehand, until they’re slightly caramelised, really enhances the flavour.
Feel free to experiment with adding any veg, spices or herbs that take your fancy. Potatoes and carrots are popular additions to pumpkin soup, for example.
You could blend the soup in a food processor or free-standing blender, but if you have a handheld ‘stick’ blender, this is generally easier to use because it means you can leave the soup in the slow cooker while you blend it.
I’ve prepared my slow cooker pumpkin soup in a 3.5 litre slow cooker. If you use a slow cooker with a smaller or larger capacity, you may need to adjust the ingredient quantities.
This soup can also be made on the stove, in which case you’d need to use less stock.

Nutrition

How to store slow cooker pumpkin soup

In the unlikely event that you don’t polish off your slow cooker pumpkin soup in one sitting, rest assured that it’ll stay fresh in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days and, provided you haven’t added the mascarpone or crème fraîche yet, you can keep it in the freezer for up to three months, too.

Pumpkin slow cooker recipes

If you like the look of my slow cooker pumpkin soup, here are some more pumpkin recipes to try out using your slow cooker:

And, if you’re looking for some more inspiration for soup season, check out this Norwegian yellow split pea soup, previously shared as part of my Eat Like A Local blog post series.

WAIT! Don’t go anywhere until you’ve pinned this recipe; that way, you’ll be able to locate it once you’re ready to shop for ingredients and get cooking!