Thai Spiced Pumpkin Soup - THAILAND

I've been a little under the weather these last few days. There's a definite chill in the air and the flu is passing round, so this calls for a big bowl of soup.
Soup is a beautiful thing, almost every country has a soup with their own cultural flair. Minestrone, gazpacho, chowder.. the list goes on. I chose Thailand because I adore lemongrass and fancied it with some seasonal pumpkin.

THAI PUMPKIN SOUP WITH CORIANDER PESTO - THAILAND

Ingredients:

For the soup:

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 large onion, diced

3 stalks of lemon grass, diced

1 red chilli, minced

handful of ginger, minced

1 pumpkin, chopped

1 can coconut milk

3-4 cups of vegetable stock

salt and pepper

For the pesto:

handful of coriander, finely chopped

zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper

a little water to add

Instructions:

Heat the oil in a pot, saute the onions, add the lemon grass, chilli and ginger, cook for a few more minutes until the aromas are released, add the pumpkin, then stock. Boil then reduce to a simmer until the pumpkin is tender, add the coconut milk and blend.

For the pesto just put all the ingredients into a blender.

When serving, just top the soup with a squirt of the coriander pesto and BAM it's done.