Kabocha Soup with Dumplings

What is the best way to enjoy kabocha pumpkin you ask? Well, make them into hearty soup perfect for the cooler months. Also, this kabocha soup with dumplings should be filling enough if you want to have this as a quick lunch. The pairing of smooth silky soup and the chewy dumplings goes really well. If dumpling is not your thing, some crusty baguette should do the trick.

Preparing the kabocha soup

This soup calls for only a handful of ingredients:

• kabocha pumpkin flesh, please follow my guide to prepare a whole kabocha pumpkin
• water
• soy milk (or regular milk if you are not vegan)
• sugar
• white miso paste

If you don’t have white miso paste, you can use red miso paste too, but I think the white one works better for this soup.

Here is my step-by-step to cook the soup:

1. Boil together kabocha and water in a soup pot. Once the kabocha is tender, transfer kabocha and water to a blender, along with soy milk and sugar. Puree until smooth.
2. Return kabocha puree to the soup pot and return to a boil.
3. Turn off the heat, add miso paste to the hot soup and stir to dissolve.

Preparing the glutinous rice flour dumplings

You will need:

• glutinous rice flour, this is completely gluten-free despite its name
• water

Here’s how to make the dumplings:

1. Place glutinous rice flour in a mixing bowl. Gradually add water and knead until the dough is as soft as an earlobe. Roll the dough into about 15-16 balls. Use your index finger to make an indentation at the center of each ball.
2. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Drop the glutinous rice dumplings into boiling water. Once the dumplings float, let it boil for another minute, then turn off the heat.

To serve the soup, simply divide the kabocha soup into 4 individual soup bowls, then top each with some dumplings. Serve hot with thinly sliced scallions.