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Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

by
Joan Nathan
March 18, 2021
Photo: Justin CovingtonPhoto: Justin Covington

Pumpkin is a staple of Thanksgiving feasts. But you can put a uniquely Jewish spin on it with a Moroccan recipe for pumpkin soup.

If you don’t like pumpkin, you can use another type of squash. Moroccans may have used pumpkin or calabaza squash, brought there from the Americas after the Columbus exchange, but we have many more varieties to use in this country. I particularly like butternut or honeynut, a smaller, more nutritious squash that my friend, chef Dan Barber, developed in collaboration with Cornell University.

This soup makes a great first course of your Thanksgiving meal. For fun, find a pumpkin soup terrine to serve it.

Featured in: Take Your Pumpkin Beyond the Pie

Ingredients

  • 1cup dry chickpeas
  • ½pound stew beef, cut into 2-inch chunks
  • 1teaspoon salt or to taste
  • Freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 1large onion, peeled and quartered
  • 2cups chicken broth or water
  • 2pounds pumpkin, butternut, honeynut, or calabaza squash, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
  • 2teaspoons cinnamon or to taste
  • 1teaspoon ginger
  • 2tablespoons sugar or to taste
Yield: about 8 servings

Preparation

  • Step 1

    Cover the chickpeas with cold water and let sit a few hours or overnight, then drain.

  • Step 2

    Season the stew beef with salt and pepper, then add with the onion to a medium soup pot with the chickpeas. Cover with 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for an hour. Add the squash, then continue cooking, covered for another half hour or until the beef is soft. Scoop out some of the vegetables, puree, and stir into the soup. Add the chicken broth.

  • Step 3

    Then sprinkle with cinnamon, ginger, and sugar. Reheat and adjust the seasonings and serve.

  • If you’d like to make a vegetarian version of this soup, omit the beef and follow the above directions, adding some vegetable instead of chicken broth. Or, for more flavor you can take an extra step to cut the squash vertically and roast it with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes until browned and softened before adding it to the onions and water in the pot in order to caramelize its natural sugars and intensify the flavor.