Make This Warming, Delicious Kabocha Squash Soup
(Photo: Nicole Franzen)
There’s good news and bad news. The good? It’s finally the month where spring reveals itself. The bad? It's barely happened yet. So instead of wishing away the last of the cold, which doesn’t get you any closer to a poolside chaise (we’ve tried), how about creating a cozy meal with wintery vegetables instead?
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It’ll be easy with this soup from Ben Towill and Phil Winser, who’ve being feeding fashionable brunch-goers with veggie-based comfort food since they opened their restaurant, The Fat Radish, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan a few years ago.
The recipe hails from their healthy, colorful cookbook The Fat Radish Kitchen Diaries and was also on the menu at their Upper East Side restaurant The East Pole, where Nick Wilber is the chef.
“Squash is great because of its hearty texture and abundant nutrients, as well as its seasonality,” says Wilber. “This rich soup can serve as a meal in itself or as a side.”
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So get out your soup pot and see if this yummy recipe doesn’t at least help take away some of winter’s sting, one slurp at a time.
Kabocha Squash Soup
Serves 6
Ingredients
One 3-pound kabocha squash
Coarse salt
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
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1 tsp ground turmeric
3 cups vegetable stock
1 (15 ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
Small handful of chopped chives
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut the kabocha in half, scoop out the seeds and the stringy flesh inside, and discard.
3. Wrap the cleaned squash in aluminum foil and place in the oven. Roast until softened, about an hour. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, place the olive oil in a large heavy pot set over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, turmeric, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring every so often, until it begins to soften, about 10 minutes. Add the stock and coconut milk, bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer while you prepare the squash.
5. Peel off and discard the skin from half of the roasted squash and add the flesh to the soup. Use in immersion blender to puree. Season with salt to taste.
6. Cut the remaining half of the roasted squash into wedged and place them in the soup.
7. Serve the soup hot, garnishing each serving with toasted pumpkin seeds and a sprinkle of chives.
By Molly Gallagher for Well+Good
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For more information, check out The Fat Radish Kitchen Diaries
