Creamy Kabocha Squash Soup with Pasture-Raised Chicken Bone Broth and Crispy Nori Chips
Blending the soup with an immersion or upright blender somehow makes it tastier.
Kicking off the fall season with a rustic, cozy squash soup even though there’s been a major warm spell here. I always enjoy this soup during the colder months, and even though I’m typically not a huge squash fan, it works seamlessly in this blended soup. Organic, locally grown kabocha squash is seasonally appropriate and nutrient dense with heaps of fiber and antioxidants, supporting happy blood sugar and digestion, but any organic or regeneratively grown winter squash like pumpkin, acorn or butternut will work here!
I also hope this helps inspire you to enjoy more seaweed, especially as the nori chips are sweetened with a little maple syrup and toasted for a few minutes until crispy. If you try to eat a little seaweed every day or at least regularly, it can massively support your thyroid, help prevent a slew of different cancers, support your natural beauty, detoxify your blood, promote a healthy weight, balance cholesterol, heal liver (and therefore emotional) stagnancy, and help soften hardened tumours while infusing our bodies with rich vitamins and minerals. Seaweed is also a versatile ingredient with an earthy umami flavour that reminds us of our human evolution originating from the sea.
I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t directly inspired by Amy Chaplin’s recipe, so check out her book if you’re in need of plant-focused recipe inspiration. You could always put your own twist on it and use whatever you’ve got in the pantry, use homemade toasted activated seed milk in spring water, a different type of bone broth, grass fed goat kefir, a teaspoon of dulse flakes instead of nori chips, dehydrated seedy crackers, kale chips, or even ripped up sourdough to dip if that’s all you have.
Crispy nori chips ingredients:
Cutting the squash into large chunks, scooping out the seeds with your hands, and pre-roasting it on a tray is waaay easier.
1 sheet organic raw nori seaweed (the kind for making sushi), cut evenly into rectangles with scissors
2 teaspoons good organic olive oil
2 teaspoons pure organic maple syrup
pinch of sea salt and organic black pepper, to taste
sprinkle of organic sesame seeds
Soup ingredients:
2 tbsp good organic olive oil
1 medium organic onion, small dice
4 cloves organic garlic, minced
1 teaspoon (about 2-3 sprigs) organic thyme (or another organic woody herb you’ve got growing in your garden… or sage!)
2 organic bay leaves
1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
1 medium organic kabocha squash, peeled, seeded, and diced into 1-2 inch cubes, or simply cut into large chunks, seeded, pre-roasted on a baking tray at 400F for 30-35 minutes, then peeled and diced (this is way easier than trying to hack a solid squash into many pieces with a sharp knife!)
1 cup grass-fed organic, ideally raw cream
7 cups pasture-raised organic, corn/soy-free chicken bone broth (chicken tends to be a dodgy ingredient and mass factory farmed indoors, suffering with inferior nutritional value, so take extra care to source the highest quality possible from the best farmers you trust)
2 teaspoons organic tamari or organic chickpea miso
ground organic black pepper, to taste
Method:
Make the nori chips. Place the rectangles of seaweed on a single layer on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. In a small dish, mix the olive oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper. With a silicone marinating brush or even just a spoon, brush each rectangle with a thin layer of the oil, then flip them all and repeat for the other side. Finally, sprinkle some sesame seeds on the top of the nori. Slide the tray into the oven for 7-8 minutes until crispy. Keep an eye on it as it burns easily. Remove and set aside for garnishing.
In a soup pot, heat up the olive oil and sauté the onions until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes
Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds, until fragrant
Add the thyme, bay leaves, sea salt and squash cubes, and stir to coat everything evenly in the fat
Add in the cream and broth. Stir to combine, and bring it to a boil and then back down to a simmer for 20 minutes or until squash is soft, if you used a pre-cut raw squash from the shop
If the soup has turned chunky, add more cream/broth to thin it out to a consistency you prefer
Blend it all with an immersion blender, or in an upright blender in batches. With the blended soup in the pot, stir in the tamari, bring to a brief boil again, and then remove from heat. Taste and adjust salt. Serve soup hot with crispy nori chips on top.
Tips:
There are so many things you could make with the leftover soup! Aside from reheating it on the stove, try spreading it onto lasagna sheets or burgers, using it as a cream sauce with meatballs and cranberry sauce, or tossing it with some organic pasta to make a creamy pasta.
