Spiced Up Delicata Squash Soup

Making soup is a simple, direct way to become better at seasoning as you cook. Simmer a pot full of vegetables and it’s hard not to stir in a pinch of salt or dash of hot sauce, leaving the recipe behind to follow your instincts. Too bland, grab the salt. Too flat, add a splash of lemon juice. The allure of calling the shots is well understood by professionals. Whenever I’ve interviewed chefs about making soup,  I’d receive more impassioned responses than about making anything else (with the possible exception of cured meats). The reason: a good soup is a benchmark measurement of a cook’s palate.

An ideal soup to practice on is one made with winter squashes. Any squash will do, from butternut, delicata, or kabocha, to a combination of all three. Winter squash provides a mild, sweet canvas onto which a cook can impose her culinary personality. Do you go sweet, with a soup enhanced with nutmeg and sage, or do you veer to the spicy, currying flavor to the brink of overkill?

I go spicy.

Too often, squash soup is too sweet, thick, and bland, the culinary equivalent of a too short, tight, and shiny Project Runway garment. The first bite might be good, but the soup doesn’t wear well over the course of a meal. Leveraging spices can keep the squash on the right side of savory. By spicy, I don’t necessarily mean caliente. Heat is part of it, but more important is the interplay of the flavors, the coriander with the mustard seeds and turmeric, for example. Adding some spices early in the cooking process will result in a richer flavor than if you dump in a bunch of seasonings at the end.

For this recipe, I grabbed the delicata squash that had been on the counter for a couple of weeks, a remnant from one of the last CSA boxes of the summer. This long, striped squash has one distinctive advantage over butternut squash:  it cooks quickly and easily. It’s not as creamy when blended, but it also is less sweet, which I appreciate. And, frankly, “delicata” is just cooler to say than “butternut.”

Bill Kim, the chef and owner of Urbanbelly and Belly Shack in Chicago, recommends leaving the seeds in tact while roasting the squash because removing the seeds once the squash is cooked is easier. He’s right; they pop right out in one spoonful. By roasting the squash while you dice up the rest of the ingredients, this soup comes together quickly. I used water instead of stock in this version. Water is the best way to showcase the flavors of vegetables and seasoning, but chicken stock would deepen the savory dimension of the soup. Your call.

I’m not one to feel satisfied with a bowl of soup for a meal, opting for a cup instead as a meal component. If you like serving a whole bowl, make it more interesting by crisping some croutons in olive oil or caramelizing extra diced apples and onions for use as a garnish. If you decided to go with a more Mediterranean flavor profile (more garlic, some chile flakes, and maybe some sage instead of turmeric, etc.) you also can use this soup as the sauce for ricotta-filled ravioli. Personally, I think I’ll use it to supplement a dinner of grilled Italian sausage with pickled peppers.

Spiced-up Delicata Squash Soup

Serves about 4

1 delicata squash, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted in a dry pan and crushed with the side of a knife
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 leek, sliced, white part only (about 1 cup)
3 shallots, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small apple, peeled, cored, diced (about ¾ cup)
1 stalk celery, sliced (about 2/3 cup)
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
½ serrano chile, sliced
2½  cups water
¼-½ teaspoon cayenne
Yogurt to garnish (optional)
Lemon or lime wedges

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Place the squash in a baking pan, cut side down. Pour in about ½ inch of water and bake for 30 minutes or until the squash is cooked through. Once cool enough to handle, scrape out the seeds and, using a spoon, scoop the cooked squash into a bowl, discarding the skins. You should have about 2 cups.

2. In a pot over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the mustard seeds and wait for them to sputter. Stir in the coriander and turmeric and cook, swirling the pan, for about 30 seconds. Stir in the leek, shallot, garlic, apple, celery, and chile and season with about ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the squash and pour in the water. Bring the pot to a boil, lower to a simmer, and season with a few more pinches salt and enough cayenne to suit your taste. Cook 10 minutes, adding more water if the pot becomes too dry.

3. Using a blender or food processor, in two batches blend the soup and strain through a mesh strainer.

4. To serve, heat the soup back up to a simmer and ladle into bowls or cups. Garnish with a spoonful of yogurt and serve with lemon or lime wedges.

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