This hearty, thick, and filling Butternut Squash Soup is loaded with flavor and is adapted from a famous restaurant recipe!
The Best Butternut Squash Soup
Throughout my college years, I worked at a restaurant renowned for its honey whole wheat bread, Crème Brûlée, and this delicious soup. This soup, sold seasonally during fall and winter, significantly boosted reservations, mainly due to its return to the menu. Inspired by that recipe, I am thrilled to unveil my version of Butternut Squash Soup today.
It boasts a thick, hearty consistency and a robust flavor, making it the finest Butternut Squash Soup recipe I’ve ever encountered!
Ingredients In Butternut Squash Soup
- Butternut Squash: The main ingredient, providing the soup’s base flavor and creamy texture.
- Yellow Onion and Garlic: Onion adds depth and a slight sweetness, while garlic infuses a subtle, aromatic taste, together creating a flavorful base for the soup.
- Olive Oil: Used to roast vegetables and enhance their flavors; also contributes to the soup’s smooth texture.
- Unsalted Butter: Adds richness and helps in sautéing the spices, releasing their aromas.
- Ground Nutmeg, Ground Cloves, and Yellow Curry Powder: These spices bring warmth, complexity, and a hint of spice to the soup.
- Chicken Stock/Broth: Provides the liquid base of the soup, contributing to its depth of flavor.
- Pure Maple Syrup: Offers a touch of natural sweetness, balancing the savory elements.
- Heavy Cream: Adds a luxurious, creamy texture and a slight richness.
- Salt and Pepper: Essential for seasoning and enhancing the overall flavor.
- Toasted and Salted Pepitas (Pumpkin Seeds): Serve as a crunchy, flavorful garnish, adding texture contrast.
How To Make Butternut Squash Soup
- Roast: Preheat oven to 425°F. On a sheet, mix cubed squash, onion, and a whole garlic bulb (top cut off, wrapped in foil) with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes.
- Sauté Spices: Melt butter in a pot; add nutmeg, cloves, and curry powder.
- Blend: Add roasted vegetables and chicken stock to the pot. Simmer 5 minutes, then blend until smooth.
- Finish: Return to pot, stir in maple syrup and heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper.
- Garnish and Serve: Top with toasted pepitas.
Quick Tip
For creamy, smooth Butternut Squash Soup, use a high-powered blender; immersion blenders don’t achieve the same smoothness.
What To Serve With Butternut Squash Soup?
- At the restaurant where we served this soup, we always served it with the house made honey-whole wheat bread. Any hearty bread, toasted baguette or Dinner Rolls would go wonderfully with this soup.
- You can also make it a soup-and-salad meal by pairing with Italian Salad, Roasted Veggie salad, or this Fall Spinach Salad.
- Or pair this soup with a hearty dinner like these Short Ribs or Crockpot Pot Roast.
- Another great side dish would simply be more veggies; these Roasted Vegetables or Roasted Brussels Sprouts are a great choice.
Storage
Storage Tips
- Freezing Butternut Squash Soup: Prepare without cream, cool, transfer to freezer bags, and freeze. Thaw, reheat in a saucepan, and add cream.
- Fridge Storage: Lasts 4-5 days with chicken stock, up to a week with vegetable broth. For longer storage, refer to freezing instructions.
- Reheat: To reheat Butternut Squash Soup, warm it in a saucepan over medium heat until heated through. Stir occasionally to ensure even warming.
More Soup Recipes:
Butternut Squash Soup
This hearty, thick, and filling Butternut Squash Soup is loaded with flavor and is adapted from a famous restaurant recipe!
Ingredients
- Heaping 5 cups butternut squash, cut into 1-inch pieces Note 1
- 1 large yellow onion, halved and each half cut into 4 parts Note 2
- 1 head garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil, separated
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/16 teaspoon (just a small pinch) ground nutmeg
- 1/16 teaspoon (just a small pinch) ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
- 3 cups chicken stock (or chicken broth)
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup heavy cream Note 3
- salt and pepper
- Serve with: toasted and salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Instructions
- VEGGIES: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. On a very large sheet pan, add the cubed and peeled butternut squash and onion chunks. Peel and discard the outer layers of the entire garlic bulb, making sure to leave the skins of the individual cloves intact (and keep the bulb together as much as possible) Using a sharp knife, cut 1/4th an inch from the top of the cloves. Wrap the entire bulb tightly with foil, adding 1 teaspoon olive oil before sealing it completely. Place the wrapped garlic on the sheet pan along with the squash and onions. Drizzle the remaining 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons oil over everything else (yes it's a lot of oil!). Season with salt and pepper to taste (I add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper). Toss and bake for 15 minutes. Remove, toss, and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Set aside the foil pack of garlic.
- STOCKPOT: Meanwhile, place butter to a large stock pot or soup kettle and melt over medium heat. Add ground nutmeg, cloves, and curry powder. Stir for 1 minute or until fragrant. Transfer the squash, onions, and all the oil leftover on the tray into the pot. Stir to coat the squash in seasonings and butter. Add chicken stock. Cook for 5 minutes over medium high heat. Carefully transfer everything to a large high-powered blender (process in batches, if needed). Add 2-3 cloves of the cooked garlic (more or less, depending on how much you love garlic; I add 3 cloves.). Secure the lid on the blender and carefully blend (if you have Blendtec, blend on soup setting). Avoid too much power or pulsing as it could explode out of the blender. Once very smooth, transfer back to the stock pot and set at medium heat.
- FINISHING TOUCHES: Add in maple syrup and heavy cream (see Note 3). Stir to combine and warm through. Season to taste with salt and pepper again; I add another 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper, but add to preference. Ladle into bowls and garnish with toasted and salted pepita seeds.
Video
Recipe Notes
Note 1: If you buy the pre-cut squash that comes in 16 ounce bags, you'll need 1 and 1/2 bags.
Note 2: Use an onion (or you may need 2) around 14 ounces in size.
Note 3: Non-dairy and vegetarian/vegan variations:
- Butternut Squash Soup with coconut milk: You can replace the heavy cream with coconut milk in this soup to make a dairy-free alternative. The flavor is a bit different, and perhaps not quite as thick, but it's still delicious!
- Vegan Butternut Squash Soup: Replace heavy cream with coconut milk and chicken stock with vegetable stock.
- Vegetarian Butternut Squash Soup: Replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock.
Nutrition
Serving: 6servings | Calories: 331kcal | Carbohydrates: 35.1g | Protein: 6.5g | Fat: 20.1g | Cholesterol: 31.1mg | Sodium: 188mg | Fiber: 3.3g | Sugar: 12.4g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is my go-to recipe for butternut squash soup! I’m not a big fan of the coconut milk, so I love the broth option. I also add a couple carrots, a peeled apple, and fresh ginger. I also sprinkle pumpkin seeds and Greek yogurt as a topping.
I am so happy to hear this! Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂
This is on my list of snow storm recipes 🙂 I don’t have any maple syrup (and I’m trying to avoid a trip to the store). Will this recipe really suffer without it? Thanks!
Depends on how sweet the squash is! We always add in the maple syrup and prefer it with it in
Hi! This looks delicious – I’m planning to make it next week after my husband gets his wisdom teeth out. I couldn’t find yellow curry powder at my grocery store – do you have a substitute you recommend? Thanks!
You could try making your own! 🙂 https://eatingvibrantly.com/recipes/homemade-mild-curry-powder/ (Or just using coriander/cumin in place)
Hi, I am getting ready to make this and I was wondering about freezing the soup. I normally make full recipes so I can freeze for having later in the year.
Thanks!
Since it has a cream base I don’t normally recommend freezing this, but I haven’t attempted it. Let me know if you do freeze it and how it turns out? Thanks! 🙂
This is hands down the BEST Butternut Squash Soup I have ever made or tried. Ever. Ever!
Oh my gosh, yay! So happy to hear that, thank you so much Corrina! 🙂
it’s definitely soup season, at least for me, and don’t have any butternut squash soup go to recipes, so thank you, and the seeds are a nice texture tweak too