Red Kabocha Soup 8″x8″ gouache and watercolor pencil Sharyn Dimmick
In Wednesday’s veggie box we got a giant red kabocha squash. I was thinking of making it into a Thai-style soup with coconut milk and lemongrass, red chili and Thai basil. I asked Mom if she wanted chunky soup — i.e with vegetables floating in it — or a puree.
“Make the smooth soup,” she said. “We haven’t had it for a long time.”
I realized she was thinking of the butternut squash soup I make. I checked.
“You mean you just want me to make it with milk and ginger the usual way?”
She did. There went my exotic soup plans.
I had roasted the kabocha whole the previous night, acting on a tip from the farm newsletter that recommended roasting the whole squash and then cutting it open and scooping out the seeds and strings. I scooped the seeds and strings into a pot, along with the roasted skins, setting the squash flesh aside, covered the squash innards and skin with water and set them to simmering while I peeled and diced two onions and took our ginger root out of the freezer.
After I strained the squash stock into a bowl, I got out my microplane to grate the ginger.The microplane is a handy tool you will find at any hardware store — I find mine indispensable for grating Parmesan and ginger and zesting citrus.
Using a stock pot, I heated a little olive oil and butter over low heat. In that I sauteed my onions, grating the ginger directly over the pot, and adding some crumbled thyme leaves.. Next up, squash stock and squash: into the stock pot they go. Cook for awhile and and add a sploosh of tamari (wheat-free soy sauce).
When the squash is soft I puree the hot soup in a blender in two or three batches,, pouring it back into the stockpot as I go. I add milk to taste or until I like the consistency, somewhere between a cup and a quart, depending on how large the squash was. I usually use one-percent milk, but you can use anything up to and including whipping cream, depending on your proclivities. Just don’t use skim milk if you are going to say it is my recipe. Or dried milk.
Roasted Red Kambocha Soup (or Butternut Squash Soup)
Roast 1 large whole red kambocha squash in a 350 oven until it is fully soft. (You can do this a day or two ahead like I did)
OR cut open 1 large butternut squash lengthwise, scoop strings and seeds into a saucepan, cover with water and cook for stock, and roast squash cut side down in a baking pan. If using butternut, deglaze the baking pan with water and add the results to your saucepan.
Separate your roasted squash flesh from your seeds, strings and skins.
Cover seeds, strings and skins with water and simmer in a saucepan for stock.
Meanwhile, peel and dice 2 medium or 1 large onion.
Heat 2 tsp, olive oil and 2 tsp butter in a stockpot over low heat.
Add onions.
Grate 1 Tbsp fresh ginger over sauteeing onions (easiest with your trusty microplane)
Crumble in dried thyme to taste. (We home-dry ours, letting bundles of fresh dry exposed to the air).
Strain stock through mesh strainer into stockpot. Discard solids.
Add squash flesh to stockpot. Cook for fifteen or twenty minutes until everything is soft
Add tamari to taste. Start with 2 tsp. (This is providing your salty taste — no need for salt).
Puree soup in blender in two or three batches, adding pureed soup back to stockpot.
Add milk to taste or to achieve desired thickness or thinness. If the soup gets thick while sitting, you can add more milk when you heat it.
Food notes: I developed this recipe originally for butternut squash and it makes lovely butternut squash soup. The kabocha soup is similar, but lighter in color. You could make it with any winter squash you like.
Because the ingredients are few, the preparation methods make a difference. Once you roast squash for soup, you will never want to mess with soup recipes calling for raw winter squash again. If you make the stock from skins, seeds and strings, your winter squash soup will have a depth of flavor unachievable if you just pour vegetable stock or chicken stock into it. Please try it once. If it sounds difficult, allow yourself to roast the squash one day, make the stock another day and make the soup a third, but it really doesn’t take long all told. If you are in a hurry, save the squash seeds and skins in the freezer to make stock with next time and use water, milk or some kind of stock — just know it won’t be as good. I often mix up yeast bread dough while the squash is roasting to take advantage of the warm oven for the rise — there is nothing better than hot soup with homemade bread.
I have used evaporated milk, low-fat milk, whole milk and half and half in this soup at different times. If you use richer milk, it is richer. We find one-percent milk fine for everyday soup. If we were inviting celebrities to dinner, we might add a little half and half.
Tamari is less salty than regular soy sauce. I like the flavor better. If I had been making Thai style soup I would have used coconut milk for the milk and fish sauce for the tamari.
Obviously, you can make large or small batches of this soup, according to how much squash you start with: if you use a small squash, it will not yield as much flesh or stock and you can use less milk and one small onion. Use more squash, get more soup. You’ll have to taste it to know how much milk you like.
After I originally posted this I ran across the “No Croutons Required” October soup event, which requires bloggers to submit their delicious squash soups to Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes, http://www.tinnedtomatoes.com/2011/10/no-croutons-required-october-2011.html I am excited to submit this variation on one of my favorite soups to this long-running event.
* My little joke: I keep confusing “kabocha” and “kambocha.” The one with the “m” might be deadly in soup.
Painting note: For further information about “Red Kabocha Soup” or any other painting, please contact me here.
thekalechronicles 
I love the idea of roasting the whole squash, I love butternut squash soup but sometimes the arduous task off cutting it up puts me off. How do you roast a whole squash, do you coat it with oil?
The soup sounds marvelous and so fall, which I believe–keep your fingers crossed–we are finally starting to receive here in Central Tejas. I’ll look forward to trying it. BTW, I think the heat from the soup would kill the mother in the Kombucha, so I’m not so sure it would be deadly, but it would certainly be sour!
As we used to say in high school, “Let’s not, and say we did” — as in. let’s skip the kambocha or kambucha in the soup.
Ciara, I just put the kabocha squash, whole in a square Pyrex pan, put it in a 350 oven and waited awhile — maybe 45 minutes. For roasted butternut squab, I cut them in half lengthwise, put the seeds and strings in a saucepan, and put the squash halves cut side down in a Pyrex pan. The only difference is that I cut butternuts open and roasted the kabocha whole. No oil necessary, but you can out a little on your pan if you are concerned about sticking.
Sounds wonderful, especially with fresh baked bread.
why not roast a whole butternut squash? I season mine with butter and a splash of apricot brandy. you taught me to like butternut squash. I am not generally fond of orange vegetables.
I haven’t tried roasting butternut squash whole: some squashes explode — kabocha doesn’t because there is a lot of air space inside. Butternut squash is more dense. I’m sure the apricot brandy is good with squash. Fall seems to be the season of green and orange vegetables.
Hi Sheryn, thank you for commenting on my blog. I’ve alway hated discarding food so I was intrigued when I read this recipe; I love that you used the innards to make stock, I’m definitely going to try that! I’ve never heard of this type of squash before either. I’d love to see your Thai style recipe.
Your paintings have a real innocence to them. Sadly, I haven’t painted for years. My medium of choice is oil on canvas; I’m going to have to get to it again.
Thank you, Eva. I love squash soups, so it’s only a matter of time before I try the Thai variation and I’ll post it when I do. The only thing I don’t like about soup is that it is hard to paint well. The squash stock adds an amazing depth of flavor to the soup — since making it that way, I would never not do it. I’m going to try your veloute one of these days, too. One of the reasons I decided to illustrate the blog with paintings is that it makes me paint every week. I’d love to see some of your work: I accept guest posts from other people — the rules are 1) Write up a recipe and 2) illustrate it with an original food painting OR Send me a photograph or two and I’ll do an original painting from them.
Sounds delicious! I love the idea of squash stock. I made a corn soup this summer that called for the cobs to be boiled in the soup to make a kind of broth, and then I fished them out before serving. The soup was anti-climatic but I got the corn cob stock stuck in my brain. Do you read the blog Local Kitchen? It seems like right up your alley. 🙂 the link is localkitchenblog.com and it’s all about local eating – but not from an expensive/elitist point of view, very much real food, as the seasons provide it. It’s one of my faves.
No, I hadn’t seen Local Kitchen — but I have now, thanks. It looks good.
A lovely soup, heck you can always do the thai one next time. Lovely illustration too 🙂
Well, I’ve never even heard of this kind of squash! So it still sounds pretty exotic to me 🙂
They look a lot like a red pumpkin, Rachel. And I usually make this soup with butternut squash.