Recipe | Smoky Squash Soup

A favorite dish from OP Southeast, Chef Katie Roe makes a delightfully smoky squash soup seasoned with smoked paprika, cumin and garnished with everything from pepitas to crème fraîche. It's like wearing a sweater, in front of a fire, while it pours rain outside... but in a bowl of soup. Happy cooking!

4-8  tablespoons olive oil

22g Garlic, minced

27g Onion, diced

6g cumin

10g smoked paprika

1 cup quality canned tomato, peeled whole

1 kabocha squash

2g chili flakes

4-6 cups stock

To garnish:

Lime zest

Cilantro

Lime and salt seasoned crème fraîche

Toasted pepitas

Garlic olive oil

Salt and lemon juice to taste

Half and scoop the seeds out of your squash. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Place on a sheet tray, flesh side up. Roast in an oven at 375F, until tender. Once cool, scoop the flesh from the skin and set a side.

Over medium heat in an 8 quart pot sauté the garlic and onion in remaining olive oil until transparent add you cumin and toast until aromatic. Drop the heat to low and add the paprika to briefly toast. Pour in the tomato and cook down for a while, until the raw tomato taste is gone, and it has thickened and begun to caramelize on the bottom of your pot. Deglaze with your stock and add the squash flesh. Bring to a boil. Strain and blend, season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

Garnish to your heart's content! It's the best part.