I love Autumn: The colourful leaves, the Fall fashion, and the hearty recipes featuring the season’s best harvest. One of my favourite recipes to cook this time of year is butternut squash soup. It’s super easy to make, really versatile (as there are so many variations), and is a healthy soup that actually keeps you full. Every time I make this soup I receive rave reviews, so I figured it was about time to share. So here we are everyone, may I present: my favourite butternut squash soup!
Let’s get choppin’
Begin by roughly dicing 2 medium-sized onions and setting them aside. Next, we want to roughly mince 3 to 4 cloves of garlic and about 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger; set aside in a separate bowl.
If you want a soup that is 100% butternut squash, then you should aim for a squash that’s about 4 lbs. Peel the squash, slice in half, and scoop out all the seeds inside. Cut the squash into large inch-sized cubes. You can also buy the prepared butternut squash from the grocery store in you’re in a hurry or want to skip the hassle.
There are some different ways to add your own twist to this soup too. You can roast the butternut squash, add some all-spice, or swap out no more than 2 lbs of the butternut squash for some other kind of squash or vegetable. Recently, I decided to swap in some acorn squash, sweet potato, and carrot and I loved the depth of flavour it added to the soup. Other vegetables you could swap in are pumpkin or parsnip.
Cooking up some butternut squash
On medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of grapeseed or vegetable oil to a large soup pot. Stir in the diced onions and sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Stirring occasionally, cook for about 3 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic, fresh ginger, and 1 teaspoon of ground ginger to the pot and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Next, add the butternut squash and any other vegetables you may want to swap in (i.e. acorn squash, sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, etc.) and top it off with 8 cups of chicken or vegetable broth (I usually use chicken). Bring the pot to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to simmer until the squash is soft, about 20 minutes.
Alrighty, we’re almost done! Now, if you have a hand-blender, then I say go right ahead and take that pot off from the heat and begin blending right in there. If you’re using a food processor, then transfer small batches into the pitcher, blend until smooth, and return back into the pot. This next part is totally optional, but I like to add a little cream to my butternut squash soup. It would be much healthier without it but…yum.
Swirl in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of heavy cream and stir until it’s warmed through. What do you think? Needs more salt? Needs more cream? Make this delicious Autumn soup your way and to your tastes.
I like to serve my favourite butternut squash soup with some crunchy bread, croutons, or crackers. If you liked this recipe, you may also want to try one that’ll definitely warm you up from the inside-out: Spiced Parsnip Soup.
- 2 medium-sized onions, diced
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 Tbsp of fresh ginger
- 1 tsp of ground ginger
- 4 lbs of butternut squash*, peeled, seeded, and cubed
- 3 Tbsp of butter and/or grapeseed/vegetable oil
- 8 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
- On medium-high heat, add the butter/grapeseed/vegetable oil to a large soup pot. Stir in the diced onions and sprinkle about 1/2 tsp of salt. Stirring occasionally, cook for about 3 minutes or until translucent.
- Add the 3 or 4 cloves of chopped garlic, 1 Tbsp of fresh ginger, and 1 tsp of ground ginger to the pot and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the butternut squash and any other vegetables you may want to swap in (i.e. acorn squash, sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, etc.) and top it off with 8 cups of chicken or vegetable broth. Bring the pot to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to simmer until the squash is soft, about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and use either a hand-blender or a food processor to blend until smooth.
- Taste. Add more salt if desired.
- Optional: swirl in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of heavy cream and stir until it's warmed through.
- *Swap 2 lbs of the butternut squash for acorn squash, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato and/or parsnip!
