Butternut Squash Soup – A Beautiful Mess

If you are looking for a simple, filling and healthy soup recipe, then look no further than this butternut squash soup. If you’ve never had it before, butternut squash tastes similar to sweet potatoes in that it can lean sweet or savory and has an almost nutty, butterscotch flavor. This soup brings out those flavors while also enhancing and deepening them with the addition of rosemary, sage and just a little bit of heat from cayenne pepper.

This butternut squash soup recipe only requires eight basic ingredients (plus seasoning) and only about 30 minutes to make. While I tend to use a little butter and chicken stock, you can easily swap these for vegetarian or even vegan-friendly options. This soup is thick and filling all on its own, but a few crackers or a little toasted bread never hurt either.

Related: Want more butternut squash recipes? Next up, try butternut mac & cheese, butternut squash pasta or butternut and red curry soup.

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• Butter
• Shallots
• Garlic
• Butternut squash
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Chicken stock
• Cayenne
• Salt and pepper

I like to serve this with crackers or a toasted baguette, but it’s optional.

Directions

Peel and remove the seeds from the squash. Cube into small pieces. Set aside.

Chop the shallots and mince the garlic. Chop the sage and rosemary.

In a medium sized pot, melt the butter and oil together over medium heat. Cook the shallots and garlic in the mixture with a little salt and pepper until soft for 2 minutes. Add the sage, rosemary and butternut squash. Cook another 1-2 minutes.

Add the stock. Season with a little salt and pepper and stir in the cayenne. Reduce the heat to medium/low and cover. Cook until the squash pieces can be easily cut through with a spoon. This usually takes around 18-20 minutes, but it will depend somewhat on the size of your squash cubes and the heat level.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. Or you can do this in a blender but transferring all the soup ingredients to the blender, puree, then return to the pot. If you use a blender over an immersion blender, just take care not to spill or splash the hot liquid on yourself.

Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve hot.

Tips for Making

• While the rind of butternut squash is edible after it’s been cooked, I prefer to peel it off for this soup recipe as it makes it that much more silky and creamy. I tend to do this with a potato peeler.
• If you want to make this vegetarian, simply swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock.
• And if you’d like to make this vegan friendly in addition to swapping the stock, you should also use a vegan butter or swap the butter for all olive oil.
• You can store leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least 5 days. Rewarm in the microwave or stovetop.

More Great Soup Recipes: