This delicious and satisfying Kabocha Soup comes together with sweet Japanese squash (pumpkin) and just a few simple ingredients. Enjoy this rich and creamy soup by dipping with your favorite crusty bread. {vegetarian adaptable}
The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are starting to fall. Fall has arrived and that means pumpkin and squash season upon us! Fall is my favorite season and I especially love all kinds of seasonal ingredients only available this time of the year in Japan. Kabocha, Matsutake mushrooms, chestnuts, Sanma (pacific saury), just to mention a few.
What’s Kabocha?
Kabocha is an Asian variety of winter squash. The Japanese simply call it Kabocha (南瓜、かぼちゃ、カボチャ) and the word kabocha refers to all kinds of pumpkins in Japan. In Australia and New Zealand, kabocha is commonly called Japanese pumpkin and here in North America, we refer to it as Kabocha Squash or Kabocha.
Kabocha has dull-finished deep green skin (it’s edible!) and really bright yellow-orange color flesh on the inside. It has a naturally sweet flavor, even sweeter than butternut squash, and it’s often used for desserts and baked goods in Japan.
Be forewarned, even though it doesn’t look it, kabocha is really hard. If you are going to cut it for the first time, please be careful with the knife. Keep your fingers away from the knife’s sharp edge.
Kabocha’s Health Benefits
Kabocha doesn’t just look pretty and taste good, it is also an excellent source of beta-carotene which can be converted to vitamin A in the human body. Vitamin A is important for healthy white blood cells and good immunity. Kabocha is also a good source of iron, vitamin C, and some B vitamins and it has lots of fiber!
Over the past few years, I’ve seen kabocha available not just in Asian grocery stores, but they are also available at my local grocery stores during this season. If you love butternut squash and other vegetables similar to pumpkins, definitely try and make this easy soup recipe or other kabocha recipes.
For this recipe, I removed the peel to get the nice intense yellow-orange color for the soup, but you could include the (totally edible) skin as well so you don’t waste the food AND extra nutrition!
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Kabocha Soup
Video
Ingredients
- ½ onion
- 1.4 lb kabocha squash
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 cups chicken stock/broth (use vegetable broth for vegetarian)
- 1½ cups milk (I use whole milk)
- ½ cup heavy (whipping) cream
- 2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the Garnish
- parsley (chopped)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Thinly slice ½ onion.
- Using a spoon, discard the seeds from 1.4 lb kabocha squash and cut into 6 thin wedges. Tip: For step-by-step instructions and a video tutorial on how to cut and peel it, see my post How to Cut a Kabocha Squash.
- Remove the skin. Then, cut into small, equal-size cubes.
To Cook the Soup
- In a pot, heat 1 Tbsp unsalted butter over medium heat and cook the onion until soft and brown.
- Add the kabocha and sauté to coat with the butter.
- Add 2 cups chicken stock/broth (or vegetable broth) and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 12–15 minutes.
- Using a skewer, insert into kabocha and check if it’s fully cooked.
- Pureé the soup in batches in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth.
- Add 1½ cups milk and ½ cup heavy (whipping) cream and stir until combined. Do not let the soup boil.
- Season with 2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper. Stir over moderately low heat until it is hot.
To Serve
- Ladle the Kabocha Soup into bowls, garnish with chopped parsley, and serve.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: Original post was published on Oct 1, 2014.
I had creamy kabocha soup with Alaskan king crab at a sushi restaurant and had to try making it at home. Your soup tasted just as delicious and was a winner with my picky young kids! I’ll try it with butternut and other squash, and different toppings such as pan seared shrimp. So delicious, easy and healthy – thank you!
Hi Jane! I’m really happy to hear you and your children enjoyed this dish. Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! 🙂
I’ve made this using this recipe many times and its always amazing on it’s own. Tonight, I added turmeric, garam masala, and curry powder for a change. It added a whole another depth to the soup! Thank you Nami!!!
Hi Angela! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. Oh I can totally imagine how wonderful flavors those spices bring! And turmeric is good for health too! Thanks for sharing your tips with us!
Made the soup and my daughter loved it. Next time I will use a little less broth so it’s thicker.
Hi Jeff! I’m so happy to hear your daughter enjoyed this dish! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
Hi! If I use the thick green peel, how does that work? I wash the squash and cut it up, but won’t it be tough to immersion blend even when cooked?
Thanks!
Hi Leila! The green skin of kabocha is edible and has good nutrition, so if you don’t care about the color of the soup, the green part is definitely good to add – and immersion blender will work as long as the skin is cooked! 🙂
This looks incredible, thank you! I may try and substitute more chicken broth for the cream and milk to make it dairy free. Do you like to use this same recipe when you make butternut squash soup?
HI Leila! We use cream and/or milk for both kabocha and butternut squash soup because that’s how my children like it. But yes, you can use chicken broth and remove the dairy. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
I love kabocha soup. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods. I have been making a slightly different version of this in my pressure cooker and it’s done in just a few minutes. The skin peels off so easily under pressure (on a rack) and then I put it back in the cooker with broth without pressure to finish off for a few more minutes!
I love pressure cooker that I own now. I’ll definitely make it in my pressure cooker. Yes! I have the steamer basket now too (I just shared the kabocha pie recipe with the steaming method). I gotta try it with this recipe! Thank you for sharing your tip! 🙂 xo
Hi Nami, just want to share with you… I usually put the whole kabocha in the steamer ( I use Tatung rice cooker) and steam it for about 5 minutes. This will help to soften the skin and cut easily. 🙂 Suzanne
Hi Suzanne! Thank you for sharing your tip! I used to microwave when I didn’t own a chef knife and it worked like steaming too. I like that steaming method (especially a lot of my readers don’t own a microwave). Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
I made this today with some kind of squash I found at a market that sells local, in season produce 🙂 Definitely not a kabocha, but I didn’t need to add any sweetener since it was plenty sweet with the addition of the cream! I will definitely be making this again come fall!
Hi Carolyn! Happy to hear that! Thanks so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. Glad to know other kind of squash works too. This recipe works with other pumpkin/squash too. 🙂
I’ve used kabocha for soup since buying it in Hong Kong,and yes, it’s lovely in tempura too.
If you’re pushed for time or don’t mind a rustic texture soup, just cut everything smaller and squash with a fork when soft..
Actually, I microwave the kabocha before going into the soup to save time and this works well. Add any juices of course!
A spoon of smooth peanut butter instead of cream stirred in for a cold autumn day is good. Everyone likes this soup – why not, it has everything.
Hi Lin! Thank you so much for sharing your tip! 🙂
I spent a good part of my early twenties living in Japan and will remain forever nostalgic for the food I enjoyed there…Kabocha soup was one of my favorite comfort foods. I tried this recipe out tonight and it was so spot on I had an emotional moment. So happy I found this recipe, THANK YOU!
Hi Jackie! Aww I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! I love Japanese kabocha soup too, so I think we like the same soup! 🙂 Thanks so much for your kind feedback!
Hi! First of all I wanted to say how much I love your recipes ^_^.
I was on a lookout for a Japanese pumpkin/squash and I accidentally got the wrong one, a red kari squash (I didn’t remember the squash being green).
Should I make any changes to the recipe?
Thank you,
Maria
Hi Maria! Thank you so much for your sweet words and I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes! I’ve never tried kari squash so it’s hard to know how sweet it is inside. Kabocha is very sweet naturally, so if you use other kinds of squash/pumpkin, please adjust the flavor. 🙂 I’m so sorry about my late response…
Hi Nami,i made kabocha soup yesterday and its really delicious. Amazingly i found kabocha squash here is Saudi Arabia.It’s hard to peel though but it’s worth it. I just add a pinch of salt to cut the super sweetness of kabocha. For sure i will cook this again
Hi Michelle! How wonderful you can get kabocha there! I’m so happy to hear you liked the recipe and thank you for writing your feedback. 🙂
Hi there,
I would love to make this soup! Just curious, does it freeze well?
Thank you & love your blog!
Annie
Hi Annie! Yes you can freeze the soup. I recommend to freeze it after step 8 before adding milk and heavy cream. Wait until the soup is completely cool before putting in the freezer. When it’s defrosted, add milk and heavy cream. It should be back to nice smooth texture. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
I was just watching the video. First of all, the recipe looks awesome! Secondly, fancy knife! Thirdly, looks just like my dad’s Kabocha Soup!
Hi Megumi! Thank you so much for your kind compliment! I love my new knife. It’s quite thin (great for small hand!) and it’s super sharp. I never cut Kabocha so easily in my life. LOL. I’m flattered that your dad soup and mine is similar! xo
Hi Nami,
This looks lovely and I’m eager to try it. No guarantee of finding kabocha squash here (they appear occasionally in the supermarket) but we definitely have buttercup squash, a favourite winter variety in Atlantic Canada. It looks very similar to kabocha and is also a ‘hard’ squash — lovely flavour and nice ‘dry’ texture when baked — so I think I’ll experiment. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Hi Elizabeth! Thank you so much for your comment! Yes pretty much all squash and pumpkins should work with this simple recipe. Kabocha is very sweet so we don’t need to sweeten the soup at all, but please adjust the sweetness according to your ingredient. Hope you enjoy! 🙂