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Take Your Pumpkin Beyond the Pie

This Moroccan recipe for pumpkin soup is a perfect way to start a Thanksgiving feast

by
Joan Nathan
November 20, 2018

Micah Siva

Micah Siva

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.

Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

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

1. Cover the chickpeas with cold water and let sit a few hours or overnight, then drain.
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.
3. Then sprinkle with cinnamon, ginger, and sugar. Reheat and adjust the seasonings and serve.

Yield: about 8 servings

Note: 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.

The Recipe


Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

Joan Nathan is Tablet Magazine’s food columnist and the author of 10 cookbooks including King Solomon’s Table: a Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World.