An easy roasted kabocha squash soup that yields a well-balanced, hearty, creamy soup that is garlicky and lightly sweet. You can use butternut or acorn squash if you cannot find kabocha. You can easily make the dish vegan as well. Make a big batch in advance and serve it with toasted bread for a healthy dinner. {Vegan-Adaptable, Gluten-Free}
The weather just turned to full-on winter in New York this week. For a lot of people, that means a big bowl of cozy pumpkin soup for dinner! I’m here to let you in on a secret.
What makes an even better soup than ordinary pumpkin? Kabocha squash, or Japanese pumpkin, does. You may have even seen it at farmers markets, but didn’t know its name. It comes from the same family as the big orange Halloween pumpkin, but has a gorgeous knobbly emerald skin. Inside, it is a vibrant golden yellow. The flavor is a cross between pumpkin and sweet potato.
Kabocha creates a beautiful creamy soup that has a mildly sweet taste. The recipe lightly greases the kabocha and aromatics with olive oil and maple syrup, roasts them until perfectly charred, then blends them with a simple spice combo to make a well-balanced and hearty soup. With just a few basic pantry items it becomes a one-pot dinner, perfect when paired with sliced bread.
If you don’t have kabocha, feel free to replace it with butternut or acorn squash. The dish can be made vegan too – just use olive oil instead of butter.
Cooking notes
1. How to cut kabocha squash
It’s very important to follow the correct procedure to cut the squash to prevent injury. Kabocha squash is quite tough and can be hard to cut. Here is how to do it easier:
- Stabilize the kabocha on its side and slice off the tough stem. Use the point of your knife to poke the skin so you have a starting point, then use a sawing motion to slowly cut through the squash instead of pushing it down directly.
- Sit the kabocha on the cut side. Split it in half by slicing across the squash.
- Scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Discard the seeds.
- Sit the squash on the cut side again and further slice it into quarters.
If you still have trouble cutting the squash, you can try microwaving it for 1 to 2 minutes. The heat will slightly soften the texture and make it easier to cut through. Be careful not to overheat the kabocha, otherwise it will be too hot to handle.
2. Roasting technique
- Rub some olive oil and maple syrup onto the squash and onion, so they will have a beautiful char once roasted.
- You don’t need to remove the outer layer from the onion before roasting, because you will peel the outside layer off anyway.
- Hide the garlic and ginger under the dome of the squash, so they won’t get burned.
- Once roasted, it’s very easy to peel off the kabocha skin. You can use a paring knife to slice the skin off from a corner, and peel it off with your hands.
3. Adjust the soup texture
Depending on the type of squash you use and its water content, you might need to use more or less stock to reach the desired texture. I used 1 cup of vegetable stock and the soup was quite thick. Feel free to add more stock to make a thinner soup.
I used a mixer to make the soup, but you can use a hand blender to blend the soup in a pot as well.
More delicious soup recipes
- Hot and Sour Soup
- Winter Melon Soup with Meatball
- Chicken Udon Soup
- Chinese Egg Drop Soup
- Chinese Oxtail Soup
- Julia Child’s Cream of Mushroom Soup
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1 medium (about 2 lb / 1 kg) kabocha squash (or acorn squash, or butternut squash)
- 1 medium yellow onion , skin on
- 1.5 inches (4 cm) ginger , roughly chopped
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt , seperated
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons butter (or olive oil for a vegan dish)
- Black pepper for garnish (Optional)
- Freshly chopped sage or thyme for garnish (Optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 °F (220 °C).
- Cut the squash into quarters (see blog post above to learn how to cut kabocha safely). Cut the onion into quarters, leaving the skin on. Chop the ginger and peel the garlic cloves.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Spread the kabocha squash, onion, ginger and garlic on the tray.
- Drizzle with 1 tablespoon maple syrup, the olive oil, and the maple syrup. Rub it on to the squash evenly with your hands. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt over it.
- Turn the squash and onions to be skin-side-up. Make sure the garlic cloves are under the hoods of the squash to help them keep moist.
- Roast for 1 hour at 425 °F (220 °C). Flip the squash and onions at the 30 minute mark, still skin-side-up, and the other cut side down.
- Once the vegetables are done, let them cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the kitchen counter, until you can handle the squash with your hands.
- Using a knife, peel the skin off the squash and discard it. Remove the dried layer from the onions and discard it.
- Add the roasted veggies, the remaining 1 tablespoon maple syrup, and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, along with the cumin, vegetable broth, and butter, to the blender, Blend on high until smooth, about 5 minutes. Taste the soup. Adjust the texture by adding more broth as desired, and adjust the seasoning by adding more salt if needed. Then blend again to mix well.
- Garnish with olive oil (or heavy cream), chopped sage or thyme, and freshly ground black pepper, if needed. Serve hot with toasted bread. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Lilja Walter is a part of the Omnivore’s Cookbook team and worked closely with Maggie to develop and test this recipe.
The squash soup recipe was fantastic. I grow my own nanguo and used home made chicken stock. Outstanding!
Fantastic!!Cilantro garnishes really take this soup to the next level.
This was the most amazing soup! I was intimidated to make it. Ridiculous! So easy, so umame. Thank you for it!
So much squash around at this time of year – I know what I’m making next!
Amazing! I did cut the ginger in half as a personal preference.
I made this and loved it! In fact am making it again tonight 🙂
I found 1 hr was a bit too long and should have kept a closer eye on mine, as they got more char than I wanted. I suggest checking at the 40 min mark (though it probably depends on the size of your squash).
I topped mine with crispy fried shallots.
This recipe for Kabocha squash in awesome. Made this tonight for supper tonight.. I am some drown for a little get together for the Super Bowl hope they like it too.
This might be my favorite soup. Delicious and easy to make. I agree with Sara that it’s probably a good idea to check the squash at 40min.
This is the best squash soup I have had
We made this recipe tonight and it is hands down my favourite squash soup! I’ve made so many squash soup version with apple, with butternut squash, with carrots, with sweet potatoes, etc. The simplicity of this brings all the natural flavours out and the sweetness of kobucha.
I’m not a big fan of sweet soups but this was the perfect amount of sweet and savory. For my personal twist I topped it off with cilantro and chili flakes and it was chef’s kisses. Highly recommend this recipe!
This was a lovely soup. I would say nothing is mind-blowing about it, but it is nice. I added crispy sage and crispy chili flakes to add some spice. I might try, for next time, to roast the garlic with the skins ON. You could have a roasted garlic and kabocha squash soup. I think that would work well. Be mindful of using the TWO tablespoons of maple syrup. I just used one as the squash has enough sugars to start. Many people probably like the lime addition to tame the sweetness. Either way, the lime is a nice touch. I would agree with the 40 minute mark in your oven. I have a convection oven and the squash was already done and rocking it at 20 minutes but the extra time provide a nice caramelization on the squash. It is definitely a super thick soup and I added 2.5 times the broth.
Amazing flavor!! I added the maple after roasting as I was concerned about it burning in the oven while getting all of the veggies soft and caramelized. This recipe lets the good quality of your vegetables and stock shine!
Very easy to make. It was my first time using a Kabocha squash and I love them now! My only question is, the recipe only calls for 1 cup of broth, I ended up using over a quart to even come close to a soup consistency. I didn’t weigh my squash, but maybe it was much bigger than the recipe calls for. It turned out wonderfully anyway, thanks for sharing great recipe.
Do you roast the ginger with skin on? If so peel it before you blend it? Or do you peel it before roasting and how do you keep it from drying out?
I remember that I didn’t peel the ginger because the ones I used had very smooth skin (the skin doesn’t bother me if it’s well blended). Depending on the ginger freshness, you can roast them without peeling, and slice off the skin before blending the soup. The ginger will wither a bit, but the skin should come off easily if using a pairing knife.
This is the Very best pureed squash soup recipe I have ever tried! The silkiness is spot-on. My blender is not super strong, so I used a food processor. I added a tiny dot of heavy cream, and a shake of cinnamon and cayenne pepper before blending. This recipe makes “better-than-a-restaurant” soup; it’s “souper”!