Kobacha Squash Soup

In an attempt to use some of this yummy fall produce in front of me on the counter, I decided to pick up the kobacha squash and think of what to do! With a wife that loves soup, and some extra red skin potatoes and mushrooms on hand, I decided to go for a nice squash soup with roasted mushrooms and potatoes. As a bonus, I also wanted to use this cool squash as the bowl.

Before I started with the squash, I cut up 4 redskins, and prepped about a pint and a half of button mushrooms (I left them whole). Tossed them with some salt and olive oil and put them in the oven at 400 for about 25 minutes ... meanwhile,  I prepped the squash.

 

 

I cut a thin slice off the top and bottom of the squash so it would sit flat, and then proceeded to gut it. I cored out the seeds with a spoon, and then tried a couple different methods to scrape the squash out of the shell (leaving some of it intact for the bowl).

 

One of the halves I simply used a spoon and knife to scrape/chunk out the flesh while still raw. Not easy, but it worked. The other half I put upside down in a dish of water and cooked it on high in the microwave for about 4 minutes. My only concern was that the microwave method would render the shell too soft to use as a bowl. However with the short cooking time it was fine, and will be the method that I'll use again in the future. If it's too hard to scrape out, stick it in for another minute at a time, but just make sure you don't overcook the shell as you want it stable for the bowl. I found that if you leave about a quarter inch of squash in the bowl it will give it enough stability for serving.

 

I took what I scraped out, put it in a small saucepan without about 2 cups of chicken stock, and cooked it until the squash was soft enough to puree (I used an immersion blender to accomplish the task as it's the best tool for the job in my opinion). Once it was reduced a bit (about half) I did end up using some cornstarch/water to thicken it. Seasoned it to taste and I was ready to put it all together.

 

 

 

Once the mushrooms and potatoes were ready, I placed some of each of them in the bowls. Then filled them with the squash soup and topped them with a little greek yogurt and some freshly ground pepper. I placed the extra mushrooms and potatoes out on the platter and served!

 

 

 

DELICIOUS!

 

Happy eating,

~Matt