2 October, 2015
HOKKAIDO & BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
I love autumn. Not only for its beautifully coloured trees and golden sunshine. Also for its seasonal vegetables, fruits and nuts such as plums, apples, cherries, pumpkins, rhubarb, chestnuts, walnuts and so on. There is a huge variety to choose from. And there are so many delicious dishes that can be made with these ingredients.
One of my favourite dishes is this pumpkin soup made of Hokkaido and butternut squash. It is very easy to make, inexpensive and can be given a nice little twist by adding toasted pumpkin seeds, shrimps, seedlings, croutons or whatever your taste longs for. I have chosen toasted pumpkin seeds and shrimps in this recipe. Feel free to share your ideas. I am so up for inspiration 😉
There is one important thing to bear in mind in order to make this soup a success: please never use vegetable stock powder. That stuff is disgusting. Your soup will taste artificial and your dish will be ruined. It’s best to make your own stock. I like to cook loads, put it in different sized Tupperware and freeze it. That way I always have self made veggie stock in the house. I will share the recipe here as well as in a separate post.
But let me put down the recipe for the pumpkin soup first.
And here we go:
INGREDIENTS:
1 tbs rapeseed oil
1 chopped onion (I used a red one)
700 gr Hokkaido
300 gr butternut squash
1 litre vegetable stock (if you don’t want to make your own use liquid stock sold in jars. Not the powder version!)
1 chopped chilli
salt & pepper
1 tbs creme fraiche
Topping of your choice (i.e., toasted pumpkin seeds, shrimps, herbs, croutons, etc.)
METHOD:
Chop Hokkaido and butternut squash in cubes.
You don’t have to peel them as the skin can be eaten.
Make sure to safe the pumpkin seeds.
Heat the oil in a large pot or pan on a medium heat.
Add onion and fry until translucent.
Add Hokkaido and butternut squash.
Cook for about 3 – 5 minutes.
Add vegetable stock.
Cook for about 40 mins on a medium heat.
Stir occasionally.
Add chilli and season.
Blend until smooth.
Fry pumpkin seeds in hot oil. Make sure to place a lid on the pan. Seeds might pop.
Serve soup with toasted pumpkin seeds and topping of your choice
Enjoy!
Have a blonDISHious day,
Sabrina
16 thoughts
This soup goes up to eleven…just licked the bowl clean
Organic dishwasher xxx
This is a good challenge Sabrina! I’ve never seen an Hokkaido pumpkin in my life!! and I don’t know if in Italy or better in my little town, this kind of pumpkin exist. In our area we produce butternut squash and usually we use it for all the dishes we prepare with squash….OMG. Tomorrow I will start the research!!!
Wow! That is interesting. We’ve got loads of them here.
Let me know if you managed to locate one. Fingers crossed. xxx
It’s a wonderful recipe. I love pumpkin and I know that kind Hokkaido. I saw some of them at Pumpkin Sagra in Piea Asti. Every year there is a big festival and you can find a lot of pumpkin variety. I tried it but the pumpkin of Piedmont can’t to be compared. Sabrina if you can try Violina pumpkin or Chioggia and try difference.
Good morning Sabrina and thanks for this new recipe. I love pumpikins ( risotto, in salty cake, roasted with red onions and capers …and so) but , as Patty said, I don’t know Hokkaido pumpkin too. This afternoon I’m going to an autumn agricultural fair in a village near Padua and I’ ll surely ask for it! Thanks and have a good saturday!
It is also known under the name of “Red Kuri” pumpkin. It is a Japanese winter squash.
Good luck. xxx
Thanks Sabrina I hope I can find it, otherwise I’ ll try with common pumpkin and I’ll tell you …
#butternutsquash #soup oooohhhh sound delicious
My hubby will just do the same Mr. Steve Norman
I love making soup, especially at this time of year, and so this recipe immediately appealed.
I couldn’t find Hokkaido so I used a regular pumpkin. Nevertheless the result was great, a tasty, thick, warming soup with just a little kick from the chillies. I never realised before there is no need to peel pumpkin and squash (added benefit) and this is such a simple recipe anyone can master it.
I topped mine with toasted pumpkin seeds, prawns, fresh coconut and extra chilli.
This recipe is now on my ‘go to’ soup list alongside my other homemade favourites, mushroom, broccoli and stilton, and it may even edge out my roast butternut squash!
My only regret is I’m left wondering what it might have been like if I had been able to use Hokkaido? Perhaps when Steve comes home you should fill his bag with Hokkaido, I think you may be creating a market for it here!!
Thanks Sabrina. Souper recipe, keep them coming!
Wonderful, Wendy! Thank you so much.
I am sure it was still delicious…even with a different pumpkin.
Great idea with the coconut. Will try this next time.
Yeah, we should import Hokkaidos and make loads of money…hahaha xxx
Hi Sabrina. I’ve done it ( pic on twitter …hope you can see it) with some variants : common pumpkin instead of hokkaido one ( not able to find it) and toasted brown bread instead of pumpkin seeds cause my daughter doesn’t like them. I also put some fried red onions rings on it.
Delicious! Thanks so much for the idea! Love this blog!!!
This soup is probably the best to have at a cold and rainy autumn day – brings some colour to all the grey. 🙂 I made this soup together with my boyfriend, cooking is now something we have in common. 🙂 I’m glad he helped because chopping the pumpkins was kind of hard work. But the rest was very easy and made lots of fun. We chose roasted pumpkin-seeds, self-made croutons (my boyfriend knows how to make them) AND shrimps for topping. Which was a little much as the soup itself is very rich. I didn’t expect that although I should have remembered from the watermelon-gazpacho. 😉 My parents who live downstairs were lucky, because they also got some pumpkin-soup. We all liked it a lot and I hope to make it once again before autumn ends. 🙂
As it seems that the Hokkaido squash cannot be found in Italy,,.I made the soup with a normal italian pumpkin from Emilia area.. Well the result is simply delicious. I was impatient to prepare the soup but I did not have at home shrimps or crouton, so I put parmigiano-reggiano (parmesan) and EVO oil on the top. The taste is a mix of salt and sweet and I love it so much. The recipe has been already included in my cook-book under the name VELLUTATA DI ZUCCA DI SABRINA. This evening Sabrina you made me a big gift. My son, who doesn’t like veggies, except peppers and potatos, ate 2 full dishes of soup!! Incredible!!!! And his comment was: I can eat this soup every day!!! I didn’t belive what I heard and what I saw!!! Thanks again. BLONDISHIOUS IST SUPER!!!! xxx
Patty, that is such a lovely feedback. Thank you so much. Very happy about that.
Can’t believe your son sad that. How very sweet 🙂 How old is he?
Big hugs to you and thank you for sharing your thoughts, Sabrina xxx
Done Sabrina ! Unfortunately no Hokkaido but simple squash and potato, instead . Whole wheat breadcrumbs, parmigiano, nuts (instead of shrimps…no fish for me…) and EVO on top.. yummy, healthy, crunchy and …blonDISHous !!! Xxxxx