Kabocha Squash Soup With Pomegranate Seeds & Spicy Candied P
- Ready In:
- 45mins
- Ingredients:
- 12
- Serves:
-
6-8
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 (2 1/2 lb) kabocha squash, peeled, cleaned and diced into 3/4 -inch pieces
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups heavy cream
- salt
- pepper
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1⁄2 cup water
- 1 cup pecan halves
- 1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or espelette, to taste)
- 1⁄2 cup pomegranate seeds
directions
- Heat a 4-quart sauce pan or small pot over low heat. Add the butter and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Stir in the squash, broth and cream, and season with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and one-fourth teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, loosely covered, until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes.
- Puree the soup in a blender, or using an immersion blender, and pass through a strainer to remove any remaining solids. You should have about 9 cups soup. Set aside in a warm place until ready to serve.
- While the soup is cooking, candy the pecans. Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan, stirring to moisten all of the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat and cook, evaporating the water and cooking the sugar, until a thermometer inserted in the liquid reads 265 degrees (hard ball stage for sugar), 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from heat.
- Add the pecans and pepper powder to the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until cool. The sugar will crystallize (or seize) as it cools, forming a cloudy hard coating around the nuts; this is fine.
- When the nuts have cooled, heat a clean, medium pan over moderate heat. Stir in the crystallized nuts and stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar coating on each nut caramelizes. Remove from heat and allow the caramelized nuts to cool on a sheet of parchment paper.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and serve garnished with a small handful of spiced candied pecans and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Karen in CT
Natick, MA
<p>I'm a Canadian in New England. Humidity is not my friend.</p>