Miso Kabocha Squash Soup with Caramelized Onion Grilled Cheese

The second a mild cold snap hit Austin this February, I ran to the store for a kabocha squash. I’ll take any excuse to indulge in cozy meals that I can get! (Did I procrastinate making soup that night? Yes. Did the weather immediately swing right back to its regularly-scheduled-unseasonably-warm the next day? Sure. This soup was still worth it.)

I’m always going to be a stew-over-soup girl, but this creamy-dreamy soup gets an exception. Savory umami miso vibes, balanced by the squash’s sweetness…. who am I kidding, it’s the perfect dipping vehicle for a caramelized onion grilled cheese sandwich. And when that sandwich includes a black sesame sourdough bread…talk about heaven. My life changed when I started rolling my sourdough bread in sesame seeds. (As with almost all gluten-free bread goods, I follow the gospel of Aran Goyoaga’s amazing cookbooks.)

Ingredients

serves 3-4

SOUP

• 1/2 of one roasted kabocha squash

• 1/2 yellow onion

• 3 cloves garlic

• Olive oil and toasted sesame oil

• 3 cups low-sodium broth (chicken or vegetable)

• 1 bay leaf

• black pepper

• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

• 2 tablespoons red miso

• chili crisp to drizzle on top (I use Lao Gan Ma) - if you don’t have chili crisp, I’d add at least a teaspoon of red pepper flakes. The soup benefits from some heat!

CARAMELIZED ONION GRILLED CHEESE

• 2-3 sweet or yellow onions, thinly sliced

• 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

• shredded mozzarella cheese

• mild gruyere cheese (I use Trader Joe’s cheddar-gruyere blend)

• sourdough bread

• butter

The Cookin’ Part

1. Roast the Squash: Preheat oven to 425. Cut the kabocha squash in half, and scoop out the seeds. Place cut sides face-side down on a sheet pan. Roast for about 45-50 minutes, or until the flesh starts to caramelize and you can pierce the skin easily with a knife. (I’d recommend lining your sheet pan with aluminum foil - a ripe kabocha squash can get juicy and leave a hard-to-clean sticky mess!)

2. Caramelize the Onions: This is a slow-burning labor of love…but gosh, so worth it. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed cast iron skillet, dutch oven, or pot, and cook the onions on low-medium heat. Stir them frequently. You want to go low and slow on the heat, so the onions don’t burn. Once they start gaining some color, season with a little bit of salt. The more brown they get, the more you’ll want to stir - make sure to scrape up any brown bits (the frond), and if it gets too dry, add a little water. Add the rice wine vinegar, stir, and remove from heat.

3. Make the Soup: In a pot on medium heat, add a couple of tablespoons and a dash of toasted sesame oil in a pot, and throw in your diced onions. Let them sweat and brown a little, then throw in the garlic. Stir, and once it smells garlicky and aromatic (so quick! like 30 seconds!), throw in the kabocha squash flesh. Give it a quick stir, and then add the stock.

4. Season with salt and black pepper (go light with the salt. Miso is salty, and there’s no going back from too salty! You can always add more salt later), and add the bay leaf. Bring to a low boil. Half-cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and let the mixture simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

5. Add a few ladles of the soup mixture into a small bowl - stir the miso into that to make sure it’s smooth and not lumpy when you add it to the soup. Pour the smoothed mixture into the soup, add the rice wine vinegar, and give it a quick stir. Turn off the heat.

6. Make the Sandwich: Butter the outside of your bread slices, then assemble. First, spread your caramelized onions on the bottom, then layer on the shredded cheeses. Heat a skillet on medium-low, melt about two tablespoons of butter in it, and put your sandwich in. Press down with your spatula, then cover and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Flip, cook for another couple of minutes, then eat!