Zesty Slow Cooker Orange Ginger Kabocha Squash Soup Recipe

Nutrition: 196 Calories | 18.2g Net Carbs | 9.1g Protein | 6.4g Total Fat

Enjoy the sweet warmth of orange and ginger in this velvety kabocha squash soup recipe. This easy slow cooker dish is great for lunch or dinner.

Winter squash is so much fun. There are so many varieties in all kinds of shapes and colors. This dark green beauty is kabocha squash. And sometimes it’s called Japanese pumpkin. How fun is that? My kids got really exited the first time I told them we were having Japanese pumpkin soup. Not only is kabocha squash beautiful on the outside; it’s also a lovely vibrant orange on the inside. Kabocha squash has a lovely sweet flavor, often sweeter than a butternut squash, and the texture is similar to a sweet potato. All these things make it the perfect choice for a velvety soup.

Clean and Cut the Kabocha Squash

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The first step in making kabocha squash soup is to clean the squash and cut it into cubes. To be honest, this is also the hardest part. That dark green skin can be really tough to cut through. To make the job easier, microwave the squash first for 3-5 minutes depending on the size. This is my trick for cutting through the tough skins on other squash too, like in my Roasted Spaghetti Squash Recipe. After you cut the kabocha squash in half, use a spoon the remove all the seeds and strings. Then, slice and cube the flesh of the squash and put it in your slow cooker.

How to Cut a Kabocha Squash (Japanese Pumpkin) かぼちゃの切り方

Watch this video on YouTube

This is a great video showing you how to cut up your kabocha squash.

Diced Onion, Garlic, Ginger, Orange Juice and Orange Zest

Prepare the Remaining Ingredients

Once you have the squash cut up, it’s time to build the flavor with a few more ingredients. Start by dicing up a medium sized onion. Then, mince four large garlic cloves. Next, zest and juice two large oranges. You could also use 4-5 of the small clementine oranges instead if you have some on hand. Peel a couple knobs of fresh ginger. I often grate fresh ginger with my zester, but for this recipe there’s no need because you’re going to puree it. So, you can just roughly chop the ginger instead. You’ll want about 1-2 tablespoons of chopped ginger, depending on your taste.

Put it all in the Slow Cooker

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After preparing all the ingredients, put it all the slow cooker. Add the cubed kabocha squash, diced onion, minced garlic, chopped ginger, orange juice and orange zest. For more warmth and an extra depth in flavor add ground nutmeg. Then, add salt, coconut milk and stock to the crock pot too. Keep the dish vegetarian by using vegetable stock or chicken stock works great too. Put the lid on the slow cooker and let the soup cook all day on low or cook on high to have it ready for lunch.

Orange Ginger Kabocha Squash Soup in Slow Cooker

Puree the Kabocha Squash Soup

After the soup is done slow cooking, it’s time to puree it. The easiest way to puree any soup is with a immersion blender. Stir and blend the soup with your stick blender until there’s no more chunks and it’s velvety smooth. If your soup is too thick, add a little more coconut milk or stock until you get the consistency you like. You can also puree the soup in a traditional blender, but be careful. The hot steam can potentially blow lid off your blender.

Make Orange Cream Sauce

Make a quick and easy orange cream sauce to drizzle on top of your soup. All you do is combine the juice and zest of half a large orange with sour cream and a touch of salt. You could also use one clementine orange. Whisk everything together in a bowl. Or, shake everything together in a condiment bottle. The condiment bottle makes drizzling even easier. If you want to keep the recipe dairy free, skip the sour cream. Instead use coconut cream from the top of can of coconut milk.

Serve the kabocha squash soup with the orange cream sauce on top, a sprinkle of ground nutmeg and pepitas as desired. You might also like these other winter squash recipe: Butternut Squash Soup, Delecata Squash Rings, Roasted Acorn Squash, and Spaghetti Squash Casserole.