Roasted kabocha squash soup

Last year around this time, I learned about kabocha squash.  I'd enjoyed it for ages in the form of tempura at Japanese restaurant without ever quite knowing what it was!

But luckily, Nami at Just One Cookbook revealed the mystery of the delicious kabocha squash, also known as "Japanese pumpkin".  I started experimenting with roasting different varieties of squash last Fall and I discovered that I really love the kabocha above all else! 

What I love most about it is the texture.  It's this wonderful combination of squash-potato, sweet-potato, and chestnut!  It's usually got the texture and flavor of Japanese sweet potato as well, which I absolutely adore (I say "usually" because sometimes you get a drier-denser kabocha and other times, a "wetter", more squash-like, one).  It's sweet and altogether delectable and really satisfying.  Now that it's been in season, I constantly buy this green, knobbly and rough-looking squash to roast.  I can put away a lot in one sitting!  Now given my tendency towards routine, it's hard for me to break away from simply roasting-and-eating, but I managed to try something new - this soup!

There's no cream necessary in making this thick, smooth, and creamy kabocha soup. I started with sweet onions and flavored the soup with a generous amount of grated ginger as well as garlic for a little kick to balance the sweetness.  I add roasted kabocha, cooking everything together, before using the immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth.

This is my husband's kind of way of enjoying kabocha and I also devoured my fair share of it.  It's so hearty and satisfying.  I do love to eat the skin of the kabocha though - amazingly, the rough and tough-looking skin is incredible soft and absolutely edible after cooking.  So while I'm not about to give up on my roast-and-eat routine, I'll be more than happy to make a batch of roasted kabocha soup once in a while.

Cauliflower tahini soup

At this point, I've settled into the swing of Fall.  It's already October! Things change so fast - we go from sizzling summer days to yellowing leaves seemingly overnight. There's such a huge difference between the whirlwind and buzz of summer and the quietness of Fall.  Each has its own merits and I'm actually happy to transition from one to the other, appreciating each in different ways.

A creamy but creamless cauliflower soup finished with tahini and garnished with toasted pine nuts

So I think it's time to settle down with soup again.  Soup is something I make and enjoy all through the year but when the weather drops, I really start to crave it and think about making it more regularly.  

Recently, I made a creamy but creamless cauliflower soup, that's finished with a spoonful of tahini.  It's a recipe I picked up from a book I read a while back, called Lunch in Paris (it's got a familiar theme of a woman's transition into a new life in Paris; there are many of these books and this was one of the more enjoyable ones I've read).  

It's really ever so simple to make, as soups often turn out to be, making you question why you ever pay unreasonable prices for it outside.  There are just four basic ingredients in this soup: cauliflower, onion, chicken stock, and a bit of tahini/sesame paste stirred in as a finishing touch to add some richness and that little something in the background.

The soup comes out practically snow white (I seasoned it with white pepper).  I topped mine with some toasted pine nuts but you could go with other options like chopped chives, a pinch of paprika, toasted garlic slices, sesame seeds, poppy seeds or maybe some cashews.  The soup may look at little bland and boring but I was scraping my bowl clean with this one.  

Sometimes, the basics are all you need for something delicious and comforting.  I love the sweetness from the onion, the background of chicken stock anchoring the flavor, and the texture and thickness from the cauliflower, which is cooked down and finally pureed into this velvety soup.  This is the time of year when I start pulling out my immersion blender and I'm very grateful to have this handy tool to make soups like this one!