Pumpkin Who? Kabocha Squash Soup Is Where It’s At

Every week, we spotlight a different food blogger who’s shaking up the blogosphere with tempting recipes and knockout photography. Here, Lily Diamond of Kale & Caramel nixes pumpkin in favor of its flavorful cousin kabocha squash in a creamy spiced soup perfect for fall.

All photos courtesy of Lily Diamond

By Lily Diamond, of Kale & Caramel

This soup is a primer for autumn nights: Earthy, rich, warming, and deeply comforting. It’s also a prelude to a confession: I rarely use pumpkin for my seasonal cooking. Kabocha squash is everything pumpkin purports to be, and more. It’s dense, sweet, and profoundly orange. I even make my pumpkin pie with baked kabocha squash. But enough about pie. Today is all about soup.

Scandalizing pumpkin confessions aside, this soup becomes a complete meal with the support of fennel and onion, cooling plain yogurt, tangy pomegranate (in both molasses and fresh forms), and the complexity of my own toasted dukkah.

Dukkah is a Middle Eastern spice mix that can be blended at home and customized to highlight the flavors of the dish at hand. Here, I used sesame, fennel, coriander, and cumin — all of which enliven the sweetness of the squash and are particularly bright against the yogurt. Toasting the dukkah gives it a super potent shabam of flavor.

Roasted Kabocha Fennel Soup
Serves 2

1 medium-large kabocha squash
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more as needed
1 cup sliced fennel bulb
1 cup sliced yellow onion
?-inch knob of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
? teaspoon sea salt
1 ? cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
? teaspoon ground coriander
? teaspoon ground cumin
? cup plain yogurt
Pomegranate molasses, to drizzle (optional)
Pomegranate seeds, to top

Preheat oven to 425o F. Cut kabocha squash in half and scoop out seeds. Slice into half circles, about 1 to 1? inches thick. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and turn the squash pieces to coat. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until completely tender.

While roasting, place fennel, onion, ginger, sea salt, and a glug of olive oil in the bottom of a large stock pot and sauté over low heat until browned. Stir frequently.

When the kabocha is done roasting, scoop the flesh out of the skin and add to the stock pot. Add vegetable stock and continue to sauté this new mixture for a few more minutes, allowing the flavors to marry.

Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend on high until fully incorporated. Taste, and add more sea salt as you prefer.

To prepare the dukkah, roughly crush fennel, sesame, cumin, and coriander with a mortar and pestle. In a frying pan or cast-iron skillet, gently heat this mixture over medium-high flame until the seeds begin to pop, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Serve soup with a dollop of plain yogurt, toasted dukkah, a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, and pomegranate seeds.

More soups to warm up with:

Butternut Squash Soup from ‘My Kitchen Year’

Alice Waters’ Lentil Soup from ‘My Pantry’

Weeknight Miso Soup Recipe From ‘The Crepes of Wrath’