My love affair with the Kabocha Squash hasn’t ended. Our love is as strong as ever and I’m sure it will last a loooong time. Every week when Neil is out of sight at the supermarket I dawdle through the fresh produce section, I hear a “Psssst”. When I turn my head, there he is, sitting in all his glory with his dark and light green striped skin with a rough yellow patch or two; as sexy as ever. Without hesitation I will pick him up, caress him and tell him I missed him. When our tender moment has passed I make a dash for our trolley wherever it may be and hide him quickly before Neil sees him. Satisfied and excited I would quietly plan in my head what sordid yet creative business I’d like to do to him when Neil has left for work. Oh, if Neil only knew!
Excuse me, I think I’ve just written my daily dose of bollocks. At least I enjoyed it. 🙂
P.S. This soup will be flirting with Jeanne from Cooksister at her Waiter, There’s Something in my Pulses event.
Baked Kabocha Squash & Butter Bean Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
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Pin RecipeDescription
Ingredients
- 200g (7 oz) dried butter beans
- 1–1.5kg (2-3lbs) kabocha squash
- 15ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
- 15ml (1 tbsp) butter
- 1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 750ml (3 cups) vegetable stock
- 1.25ml (¼ tsp) ground cinnamon [optional]
- 1.25ml (¼ tsp) ground nutmeg [optional]
Instructions
- You need to soak the beans for at least 12 hours (alternatively overnight) in plenty of cold water.
- Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Halve pumpkin crosswise and scoop out seeds and strings. Place pumpkin halves in a large baking dish, shallow side down. Bake, uncovered, for 30-45 minutes, or until fork tender.
- Meanwhile melt the butter and add the oil to a large pot. When the mixture starts sizzling, add the onion and fry gently until softened. Rinse the soaked butter beans, add them to the pot and pour in the stock. Simmer the mixture for about 30 minutes or until just soft, not mushy.
- By then the pumpkin would be cooked. Remove the baking dish from the oven and wait for the pumpkin to cool down. When it is cool enough to touch, scoop out all the flesh and add it to the simmering bean pot.
- Add the spices now and simmer gently for about 5 minutes, then purée the mixture with a hand blender. Alternatively, you can wait for the mixture to cool down a little bit and purée it in batches in a blender.
- Serve immediately with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg sprinkled on top.
Notes
- For a complete meal you can serve brown bread with lashes of butter on the side.
- A dash of cream goes nicely with the soup.
- Different ovens cook different things at different rates. My old oven used to take about 90 minutes to bake a halved pumpkin. My new one takes 30 minutes. If you would rather want to play it safe, bake the pumpkin first, then only start cooking the beans.
- Feel free to use a different variety of pumpkin; whatever you find available. Local is best!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 199
- Sugar: 7 g
- Sodium: 380 mg
- Fat: 5.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 32.3 g
- Fiber: 7.4 g
- Protein: 8.3 g
- Cholesterol: 5 mg
Kevin says
3rd April 2008 at 2:34 amThat soup looks and sounds really good! Nice photos. Kabocha squash is one of my favorites.
a. grace says
3rd April 2008 at 8:54 amkabocha squash is my secret lover as well…i hope there’s enough of him to go around. 🙂
that looks like one creamy, delicious soup. the kabocha was enough to get me interested, and the addition of cinnamon makes me super excited to try it out immediately!
Helen says
3rd April 2008 at 11:06 amHey I enjoyed your daily dose of bollocks! I also think your soup looks delicious.
Patricia Scarpin says
3rd April 2008 at 1:40 pmFun post! 🙂
I love this kind of soup. It’s so comforting.
Jeanne says
3rd April 2008 at 2:53 pmOooh, lucky me – a flirty gourd! I hate to break it to you though – I think he’s two-timing you because mr Kabocha also whispers to ME in the supermarket 🙂 Butter beans make such a great creamy soup base so I can imagine how velvety and delicious this would be. En MAN jy het mooi sagte natuurlike lig in jou huis!
Rachel says
4th April 2008 at 12:30 amYou love squash as I can tell. If you are looking for a sweet treat you can visit my site and look up butternut squash bread. This was a delicious bread, and my first time using butternut squash in this manner. The soup looks wonderful, I am going to have to try that.
Michelle says
6th April 2008 at 10:37 pmThanks, Kevin.
A. Grace: That bastard! No wonder he isn’t on the shelf every week! 😉
Helen: Thanks, sometimes you just need to get it out…
Thanks, Patricia.
Jeanne: Grrrr, I see he has been making his rounds then??? 😛 Dankie, daar is ten minste een use vir ‘n conservatory in Engeland.
Rachel: Oooh, I’ve never had pumpkin bread. I’d sure like to give it a try.
Fearless Kitchen says
11th April 2008 at 3:01 pmThis looks delicious. I haven’t cooked with kabocha before, because my husband has a strong aversion. Apparently someone used to do something unspeakable to them in his youth, probably involving boiling, and now he won’t eat them at all. If I try to sneak it in stealthily… like with a really pretty, appetizing soup… he might get over it!
Michelle says
12th April 2008 at 1:39 pmFearless Kitchen (sorry, I can’t find your name on your website): I know how you feel. My husband is averse to any Asian spices. Meanwhile I love spicy food, so my cooking feels a bit hampered. Maybe sometime I’ll see if I can slip some ginger in a stirfry and see if he notices. Fingers crossed…
Claudia says
19th April 2008 at 12:43 amI made this soup a few days ago and we liked it a lot. It’s just taken me til now to write. I did add more spices though. Salt & pepper, powdered curry leaves, and cumin. I also used some chicken stock I made instead of vegetable stock.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
BUNNEY says
4th February 2010 at 7:02 pmis it possible to use a standard English pumpkin instead of the kabocha squash? the recipe looks so good.
Michelle says
8th February 2010 at 1:28 pmBunney: Any pumpkin, including the English variety, will work with this soup. Kabocha just happens to be my favourite. You should try it sometime!