It’s autumn, so obviously we want to cook pumpkin soup. A nice and warm combination of pumpkin, ginger, chilli and orange lentils for instance. Or with Jus de Truffe for a bit of extra umami and exclusivity.  Both are excellent vegetarian dishes, perfect for lunch with some crusted bread or as a starter.
Having recently prepared kabocha with shrimps, we decided to prepare a vegetarian soup with it. The basis of the soup is Kombu Dashi (made with dried Kelp). The dashi and the soy sauce bring saltiness and umami to the soup, which combines very well with the exceptional sweetness of the pumpkin and the mirin.

You could prepare the soup with the skin of the kabocha, but we love the intense orange colour of the inside.

What You Need

• 20 grams of Kelp
• 1 litre Water
• 1 Kabocha
• Light Soy Sauce
• Mirin
• Purple Shiso

What You Do

1. Add the kelp to one litre of cold water
2. Put on low heat and wait until it has reached 80 °C or 175 °F. Overheating it will make the dashi bitter
3. In the meantime, wash and peel the kabocha, remove the seeds and dice
4. Remove the kelp from the pan, discard and add the kabocha
5. Allow to simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes until the kabocha is soft
6. Remove some of the liquid and blender the kabocha
7. Add liquid until you have the right consistency
8. In our experience you will need one litre of water to cook the kabocha but it might be too much liquid for a nice, velvety consistency of your soup
9. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of mirin and 1 or 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce.  It’s a matter of your preference, ripeness of the kabocha and the kelp
10. Best to decorate with some purple shiso, or with sprouts (as we did), provided they’re not too spicy