This is my second recipe in a row on squash but hey, you need to make the most of it whilst the season last 🤗! This is my favorite soup of all time as it’s super creamy and sweet once you roast the flesh in the oven, it just intensifies the natural sugar 🤤. This time to make it a bit more special, I decided to use smaller squash and use the skin as the bowl for the soup and I tell you what, it does look mighty impressive! 😎

Since the first lockdown, I started buying my fruits and vegetables from a family own business based in the London area (check out their website at https://www.laysfruitandvegbox.co.uk/, I recommend them, Bev the owner is super friendly!). I can choose the content of my own box with great fresh products 🍋🍓🍅🥑🥬🥔🥕 (For most other veg boxes I tried, you cannot customize the fruit/veg which is not ideal when you cannot eat certain things because of silly IBS!).

This recipe was so easy to prep and you don’t even need to go through the process of chopping and peeling which I always find a bit daunting when cooking with pumpkin/squash. I also decided to roast the kale to make crispy flavorful green bits as toppings for the soup and it paired wonderfully well! And as I had the oven on, I added few garlic cloves for my boyfriend too (I can’t eat them anymore but my man is a fan!). It just gets really sweet and soft in its peel and once you squeeze the content out, you can spread the garlic flesh onto your toast and dunk it in the creamy soup! 🤤 Absolutely amazing…

Let’s go with the recipe!

My cheesy squash soup with crispy kale (Vegetarian)🎃🌿

Servings: 2

Time required: 50 minutes

Level of difficulty: Easy

Equipment required: hand held blender, baking tray

Ingredients

• 2 small kabocha or buttercup squash (I used one of each)
• 50 mL lactose free cream (or normal if you don t need the lactose free!)
• 150 mL water (depends on how liquid you like your soup)
• 6 leaves of cavalo nero chopped (or black kale but you can use the green kale too)
• 80 g of strong cheddar cheese (I used a blend of cheddar and parmesan to mix it up!)
• 1 tbsp of finely chopped parsley
• 1 tsp of dried thyme
• 2 tbsp of pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• salt/black pepper
• 4 slices of sourdough
• 4 garlic cloves (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. with a small vegetable knife (see on one of my picture if you don’t know what I mean), cut the top off of each squash. I find this easier than using a large knife where I would get my blade stuck in the middle of it and fearing for my fingers!
3. If the squash does not manage to hold upwards, you can slightly trim the bottom but don’t get carried away as this will be the bottom of your soup bowl!
4. Using a tablespoon, empty out the seeds from the squash (you can keep them to roast them too but I didn’t for this recipe)
5. Rub both squash with one tablespoon of olive oil inside out then sprinkle salt, pepper and thyme on the flesh
6. Roast them on a baking tray with the garlic (if you are having it) for 20 to 25 minutes
7. Once out of the oven (leave it on to roast the kale), scoop out the tender flesh into a saucepan to cook the soup being careful not to scrape the bottom if you cut the squash in step 3
8. Remove the squash bowl and the garlic from the baking tray onto a plate for later
9. Add the kale with olive oil, salt and pepper in the tray then put it back in the oven
10. In the meantime, blend the squash until smooth with the hand held blender
11. Add the cream, 150 mL of water and 40 g of cheese then stir on a medium heat until perfectly combined
12. Take out the kale from the oven after 8 minutes and plate them (they should be crispy delicious)
13. Place the squash on the baking tray again and fill them to the rim with the hot soup then cover with the leftover cheese and pumpkin seeds sprinkled on the top
14. Put them under the grill of the oven to get the cheese melted and golden
15. Time to serve! Plate carefully (I use tongs and a spatula for this delicate operation!) the squash onto the plate next to the crispy kale and toast your bread to serve
16. Add a last sprinkle of parsley over the soup and that’s it!

All is left is to enjoy 😊Because it was baked in the oven, the skin gets super soft so I personally ate the bowl as well! it was delicious 😁 Let me know what you think in the comment section below!

Happy Autumn people 🍁