Make this easy butternut squash soup recipe for a healthy, creamy, comforting, and delicious Fall or winter dinner in a bowl!
The best butternut squash soup recipe
This simple homemade butternut soup is so flavorful and so easy to prepare, you’ll find yourself wanting to make it over and over again.
Each year when the weather turns cooler and the leaves begin to fall from the trees, I look forward to kicking off the autumn season with a bowl of this sweet and flavorful soup, which has become one of my favorite Fall recipes.
Leftovers also freeze well, meaning you can cook just once and get a hearty and filling meal that’s instantly ready any time you’re in need of some wholesome comfort food.
Also make this Lentil Soup Recipe
Healthy butternut squash soup
Vegan
One Pot
Whole 30
Paleo
Gluten Free
20 Minutes
Butternut soup ingredients
The soup calls for 2 1/2 lb of butternut squash, which is about 1 medium squash, and you can either buy it whole or already chopped.
To save time, I usually buy the pre-chopped squash from Trader Joes. I also prefer to buy pre-chopped onion, because chopping onions makes me cry like crazy, so it’s well worth the few extra cents!
For the spices, I like to add minced garlic, fresh ginger, lime zest, and red curry paste.
Feel free to double up on the amount of ginger called for if you want a spicier soup, and you can also use powdered instead of fresh if you’d prefer.
While I sometimes include the optional apple and carrot for added depth of flavor and to pack the vegan butternut squash soup with even more Fall character, these ingredients are also fine to leave out. I especially love using coconut milk in this soup but have also had great results with lower fat milks, so free to use your favorite.
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My favorite way to eat this soup is with a toasted homemade English muffin from my Hello Breakfast ebook.
Or try it with these Applesauce Muffins.
Served with a large side salad, the soup makes a wonderful healthy weeknight meal or is also great for Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner.
The recipe is adapted from one I’ve been making for years and first posted back in December of 2013. It was originally inspired by a recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant Favorites cookbook.
The summer before my junior year of high school, I took a road trip to visit colleges along the East Coast of the US. One of the stops was Cornell University, located in the small town of Ithaca, New York.
I fell instantly in love with the rolling hills, the cascading waterfalls, the quaint shops, and with Moosewood, a popular vegetarian establishment named one of the thirteen most influential restaurants of the 20th century by Bon Appétìt magazine. I ate at Moosewood twice during the overnight trip and left the restaurant with a cookbook in each hand.
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Roasted butternut squash soup
For a flavorful variation, you can also roast your butternut squash first if you’d prefer. (Have you noticed that you can have a lot of options with this recipe?!)
Simply cut the squash in half, then bake as desired. I roast butternut squash the same way I cook sweet potatoes: See How To Cook Sweet Potatoes.
Once roasted, combine with the other ingredients right before the blending step.
Instant pot butternut squash soup recipe
Optionally, first set the pressure cooker to Sauté mode, and cook onion with a little oil or spray until it begins to brown (6-7 minutes). Add garlic and cook another minute. Add all remaining ingredients except optional spinach, and set to High Pressure for 8 minutes. Use Quick Release, then blend until smooth. Stir in spinach until it wilts, and serve.
Crock pot or slow cooker version
Optionally, sauté onion with a little oil or spray until it begins to brown (6-7 minutes). Add garlic and sauté an additional minute. Combine all ingredients except optional spinach in a crock pot, and cook either on low for 7 to 8 hours or high for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, or until butternut squash is soft. Blend until smooth. Stir in spinach until it wilts, and serve.
Above – Watch the video of how to make butternut squash soup
Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped white or red onion
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 3 cups coconut milk or milk of choice
- 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
- 3 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger, or 2 tsp powdered
- 1 tsp salt, and optional pepper to taste
- 2 1/2 lbs peeled butternut squash (or 1 medium or sweet potato, chopped)
- optional 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- optional 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped
- 2 tbsp lime juice + 2 tsp lime zest
- sweetener of choice, such as 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- only if not using canned coconut milk, I usually add 3-4 tbsp coconut butter, cashew butter, or oil for richness
- optional, 3-5 oz raw spinach
- coconut milk or vegetable broth as desired for a thinner soup
Instructions
- *For a smaller amount, feel free to halve the recipe. If you’d prefer to make this soup in an instant pot or crockpot, instructions for both of those methods are written earlier in this post. My personal favorite way to make this soup is using canned coconut milk, but it’s also delicious if you use another milk of choice (such as almond) and include the optional oil or coconut butter.Butternut Squash Soup Recipe: Sauté onion with either 1 tbsp oil or spray (or water for fat-free) until it begins to brown. Add garlic and sauté an additional minute. Combine all ingredients except the optional spinach, and bring to a boil. Continue boiling (a low boil, uncovered) until the squash is soft, about 10-15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Either transfer to a blender or use a hand blender to completely puree the soup. If using a blender, do it in two batches. If using the optional spinach, return the soup to the pot and add the spinach. Bring back to a boil and cook just until the spinach wilts. Serve either hot or cold. Leftovers freeze well.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Healthy Recipes
oh my gosh, I LOVE road trips. I love them with friends and I even love them alone! Haha I can sing my heart out when I’m alone and it’s a great time to think!
That looks like the perfect comfort food for a snowy night! I kind of love road trips, mostly because we usually drive to Disneyworld once or twice a year! It’s like ten hours away from home, but I’ve been so many times that Disney is like a second home (:
P.S. I made your peanut butter sandwich bread with your gingerbread butter, added some molasses, ginger, and nutmeg, and OMG! The batter was great, but I haven’t tasted the actual bread yet. I hope it’s good!
Yum, I love butternut squash in all forms and this soup looks tasty!
I’ve read and re-read your previous post and can’t find anything offensive in it… guess people will always find fault in something. This soup sounds great! There’s nothing more comforting when it gets cold outside than a hot bowl of hearty soup.
Glad I’m not the only one. I just went back and reread it and I still can’t find anything remotely offensive.
Thank you both. To be honest, I couldn’t really figure it out either… but when I got emails from three different people, I had to conclude something in my word choice was offensive to a certain type of person… and obviously I don’t want that! 😕
I think some people just wait around to be offended.
Was it because of the comment about waiting till the last minute to shop? If that’s what offended someone people need to chill out!
About the folks who got their panties all in a wad on Thanksgiving: Don’t go crazy trying to work out anyone else’s insecurities. You’re fabulous! LOVE your recipes, and you’re SO precious. 😉
didn’t find anything either…. thats very weird! maybe they are competition trying to bring you down :O
Same here!! Cant see anything rude. Im pretty sure she was joking and being funny. People take things too seriously these days!!! Come on- it’s a post about pies!!! Haha
Same here!! I tried and i can’t figure out how someone could twist it and make it remotely offensive! It’s sad that people can’t even let you be yourself on your own blog. Anyway, your recipes are amazing and i am in love with this blog. You are such an inspiration! You are literally changing lives 🙂
No really, I didn’t get it and now I’m curious because I’m not able to find whatever could be offensive. Could anyone tell me? 😛
Anyway, the one and only way you won’t be offensive to anyone is to not talk or do anything. And we would all miss a lot 😉
I reread the last post too, and I assume people were offended by her saying that some people may have put off thanksgiving shopping/planning till the last minute. Basically I would say it was nitpicking. People who already have their feather ruffled start imagining insults where none were intended.
yeah, I’m with you guys…I went back a re-read the post, nothing I could see as offensive…love, love LOVE this blog!! you inspire me to create, so thanks!
People were actually offended by your last post? Seriously? How uptight are people nowadays? Sheesh. . .Anyway, thanks for the recipe! I looovveee butternut squash in the fall/winter. It’s so good!
I was offended. Oh wait, I’m pretty sure you aren’t capable of being offensive Katie (hope you’re not offended by me saying that). 🙂
LOVE butternut squash soup. & road trips are only good if they’re 3 hours or less. Beyond that, I get a little stir crazy, though listening to Harry Potter on audio helps.
I’m probably the least offendable (is that a word?) person out there. Seriously, it takes a lot to offend me. Maybe it’s the years of vegan jokes I’ve been subjected to over the years… 🙂
Hey Katie!
This soup looks amazing! With holiday dinners coming up, I was wondering how you survive as a vegan? Do you have any etiquette tips? Thanks!
I don’t have the link, but I know she’s posted tips like that before! Maybe try searching it?
Links 🙂
https://lett-trim.today/2012/03/28/special-diets-eating-out/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> and
https://lett-trim.today/2010/08/31/dining-out-vegan-style/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Thank you Katie! I have grown my own pumpkins this year and I still have a few ones left and I’ve been wondering what I’d do with them and now I know! Last time I made pumpkin&sweet potato soup 🙂
I have read and reread your post a million times… I don’t get it. Are people just ashamed of their lack’o’plannin?? If they’re ashamed enough to send an email about what was clearly a joke, shame on them. And apparently they feel they aren’t doing something correctly if they took offense to a joke about their own habits. Haha your blog is awesome! I appreciate the healthy recipes!! You always at so creative!!!
Same here. Has the post been changed at all? I mean, I read it when Katie first posted it and nothing caught my attention… Looking back and rereading I don’t see anything now either?!
No, it’s still the same. I’m glad to know it wasn’t everyone who was upset by it… When the emails started to come, that was my fear: that I didn’t see anything offensive but everyone else did.
As someone who has gone to the grocery store to do my Thanksgiving shopping at 3pm when the store closes at 4pm the day-of for the past several years, your post made me laugh. It was funny! And true. Let’s just say that last-minute shoppers have to be the most creative shoppers. 🙂 I can laugh at myself, would hope others could too.
This looks so tasty! I can never decide between butternut or pumpkin soup which one is my favorite – they are both so delicious.
I don’t mind road trips that much…except if they are super long…then I will most likely get super impatient, but I totally prefer cars over planes. That’s for sure.