Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin seems like the most all-American of vegetables. There’s jack-o’lanterns at Halloween, pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, and, these days, pumpkin spice lattes all fall long. But long before the advent of the Thanksgivukkah pumpkin donut, Sephardim and Italian Jews incorporated this festive gourd into their autumnal holiday meals. At Sukkot, Bukharians eat stuffed pumpkins while Syrians favor pumpkin pancakes, and Italian celebrate Hanukkah with pumpkin fritters. And Rosh Hashanah, the biggest pumpkin holiday of them all, boasts pumpkin dumplings, pumpkin jam, candied pumpkin, and Moroccan pumpkin soup.

Pumpkin takes pride of place at many Sephardic Rosh Hashanah tables as one of the yehi ratzones, a series of symbolic foods served at the start of the celebratory meal on the first night. Pumpkin is included in this illustrious line-up—which includes delicacies as common as apples and as unlikely as fish heads—not only for its sweet taste, golden color, and numerous seeds, which represent abundance and happiness for the coming year, but also for the resemblance of the Hebrew translation of “gourd,” kara, to the Hebrew word for both “tear” and “read.” As the gourd is consumed, a blessing asking that God “tear up” any evil decrees is recited.

But how did pumpkin, a New World food that didn’t arrive in Europe until the early sixteenth century, make its way into this ritual with Talmudic origins? It turns out that prior to the start of the Columbian Exchange, the gourds in question would have been calabashes or muskmelons; once pumpkins and other, tastier options from the Americas made it to the table, these old standbys fell out of favor.

Indeed, Jewish merchants were instrumental in spreading pumpkins across the Mediterranean, so much that the presence of pumpkin in Mediterranean dishes from the early modern era is often a sign of Sephardic influence. Jews were often early adopters of new ingredients—eggplant being another prime example—partly out of their involvement in trade and partly out of financial necessity.

The recipe for Moroccan pumpkin soup below is slightly modified from Gil Marks’ wonderful Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities around the World. A popular choice for Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, it’s a thick, hearty soup, perfect as a main course for a cold-weather dinner. The toasted pumpkin seeds (instructions adapted from Serious Eats), popular as a Sephardic snack known as pivites or bizr, really make the soup—they add a delightful textural contrast, like tiny croutons. Though pumpkin is the more traditional choice, I opted to use butternut squash here, since I find it tends to have a sweeter flavor and smoother consistency.

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Moroccan Pumpkin Soup (Shorabit Yatkeen or Potakhe de Potiron)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

8 cups vegetable stock

2–3 pounds pumpkin, butternut, or other winter squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes, seeds reserved

3 cups cooked chickpeas

2 carrots, diced

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the pumpkin, chickpeas, carrots, salt, and spices.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer until pumpkin is very soft, about 50 minutes.

While soup is simmering, take the reserved pumpkin seeds and wash to remove excess pulp. Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat to 325°F. Blot dry with paper towels, then toss in a bowl with olive oil (1 tablespoon per cup of seeds) and salt to taste. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until pale golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes total.

Immediately before serving, sprinkle each bowl of soup with a small portion of the toasted seeds.

Sources: “The Dishes of the Jews of Italy: A Historical Survey,” Notes from Zamir (Claudia Roden, 2003); Encyclopedia of Jewish Food (Gil Marks, 2010); Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities around the World (Gil Marks, 2004); “Pumpkin Spice, but Jewish,” Flavors of Diaspora (Jonathan Katz, December 6, 2017); “Romping through Jewish Pumpkin Patch,” Forward (Leah Koenig, October 18, 2012); “What Are Sephardic Rosh Hashanah Customs?,” Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, University of Washington (Ty Alhadeff, September 24, 2014)

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