Get your mise in place

Ingredients:

1. Kabocha, one large, really really BIG one
2. Leek, one, again as big a one as you can find
3. Sweet potato, we used purple Japanese sweet potato because it is BEAUTIFUL. whatever sweet potate u can get just put it. anyway we used two large ones
4. One box of vegetable broth, or make your own if you like, we believe in you!
5. Cooking Oil, suitable for heat, several tablespoons
6. Garlic, as much as you want
7. Salt, Pepper, to taste
8. Shichimi Togarashi, to taste

Non-Ingredients Requirements:

1. Blender or food processor
2. Chef’s knife
3. Skillet
4. Oven
5. Large pot
6. Baking sheet
7. Parchment paper or tin foil

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 450° F
2. Prepare your kabocha
   1. Cut in half
   2. Scoop out the seeds and pith and such; discard
   3. Cut into six even-ish chunks
   4. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper or tin foil
   5. Drizzle with an oil suitable for high temperatures (we used avocado oil)
3. When oven is preheated, place baking sheet with oiled kabocha and bake for 20 minutes
4. Meanwhile, thoroughly wash your leek, and cut into thin slices. We did ours as follows:
   • Slice the white stem from the leafy greens
   • Cut the stem in half lengthwise (you’ll have two halves of a tube)
   • Thinly slice those
   • Thinly slice each of the green leaves
5. Bring your skillet to medium heat, then sautée the leeks and garlic until the leeks are gently browned. (You may need to do it in batches if your skillet is too small).
6. Place the leeks aside
7. Wash, peel and chop your sweet potatoes into cubes; set aside
8. After the kabocha has finished roasting, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool until it can be handled (about ten minutes)
9. Prepare the kabocha purée as follows:
   • Cut a roughly 1.5” diameter strip from a slice of kabocha
   • Using your knife, separate the flesh from the skin. Set aside the skin but DO NOT DISCARD. YOU WILL LIVE TO REGRET IT IF YOU DISCARD THE SKINS
   • Place some of the kabocha flesh into your blender/food processor
   • Add a bit of the vegetable broth, and pulse the blender/food processor until the kabocha becomes fully puréed
   • If your blender/food processor gets close to full, pour off some of the purée into the large pot
   • Continue until all the kabocha flesh is puréed
10. Add the purée, the remaining vegetable broth and the sweet potato to the large pot
11. Bring the contents of the large pot to a rapid simmer over high heat
12. Season with salt, pepper and shichimi togarashi to taste
13. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
14. During this time, prepare the kabocha skins:
    • Place the skins back on the baking sheet, with the same lining of parchment paper/tin foil
    • Lightly drizzle the skins with a bit more cooking oil
    • Season with salt and shichimi togarashi, to taste
    • Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes
    • (You can turn the oven off now)
15. After the bisque has cooked, stir in the chopped sautéed leeks and allow to simmer uncovered for a few more minutes

And you’re done!!! ^ ω ^ You can eat the kabocha skin chips separately or put them on top of a bowl of bisque or do whatever you want!!!

Ours turned out looking like this

Notes

• this is our first recipe we’ve put on here; it’s not our most favorite thing we’ve ever made, we just came up with it on the spot yesterday after buying vegetables on a whim, so we wanted to remember it and figured we’d write it down for ourselves at least.
• we went for purple sweet potato, which, combined with the orange of the kabocha, resulted in a stew that was a fairly murky shade of brown. If you want it to be more pumpkin-colored you could use orange sweet potato instead, or perhaps those pale ones, whatever you want!
• we are sure the instructions here are super easy to follow 😁 but if not feel free to email us (link is on the homepage, the inbox looking icon) and let us know!!