Butternut Squash Soup
Squash soup is a creamy and comforting dish that is made from blending squash with other vegetables, herbs, and spices. It is a lovely soup that can be served for lunch or as a starter to a main course. This soup is a popular dish during the fall and winter months because of the abundance of squash.
In this blog post, you will learn how to make a creamy, squash soup.
How to Make the Butternut Squash Soup
Bake your squash for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and once cooled scoop out the flesh and set aside. In a flame-proof casserole dish, heat some oil and add in the onions, and sauté. Once sautéed, add in the garlic and sauté until aromatic. Pour in your roasted squash and season with salt in pepper. Next, pour in your vegetable broth and season with sage, rosemary, and ginger. Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and blend in either a stand blender or a handheld blender. Be careful as the soup will still be quite hot. Let cool and enjoy!
What is in the Butternut Squash Soup?
The base of this soup is butternut squash and vegetable broth. The vegetable broth can either be homemade or made using a vegetable stock cube. If using vegetable stock cubes, you will need 2 stock cubes to be dissolved in 4 cups of water for this recipe. Try using my own Vegetable Broth Recipe to make some homemade broth for either this soup recipe or other recipes.
Onions and garlic cloves are sautéed, and then the butternut squash soup is seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, rosemary, and ginger powder. You can choose to use whole rosemary or use fresh rosemary stalks tied together and remove them right before the squash soup is blended.
How to Prepare the Squash
While peeling a squash and then simmering it in a soup until tender can be a preferred method for recipes, this recipe prefers to bake the squash to remove the flesh before putting it into the soup.
Merely, cut your squash in half and spread butter on the inside flesh of the squash. Secondly, place the squash flesh down on a lined baking sheet and bake for 1 hour at 400℉/200℃/Gas Mark 6.
Once baked, you should be easily able to scoop the tender, squash flesh out.
Can I Use a Different Type of Squash?
Yes, you can! Squash is a versatile vegetable that comes in many varieties, broadly categorized into summer and winter squash. Besides, each type has its unique flavour, texture, and culinary uses.
This recipe uses Butternut Squash because I find that it is the easiest type of squash to find in a grocery store without having to go to a farmer’s market.
Storing Your Soup
Butternut squash soup can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days in an airtight container. It can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Make sure that the soup is fully cooled before placing in the fridge or freezer. If storing the soup in the freezer, leave from space at the top of the container for expansion.
Ingredients
Butternut Squash: butternut squash is the base of this soup. It tastes sweet and rich when it is pureed. This kind of squash is the easiest to find in grocery stores. If you are looking for a different type of squash, try going to your local farmer’s market.
Onion: The onion is sauteed to soften its texture. Sauteed onion also enhances the savoury profile of this soup.
Garlic Cloves: garlic cloves mellow out their pungency when they are cooked well. I love adding garlic to dishes for the taste and health benefits.
Salt: salt is the most basic flavour enhancer.
Sage: sage complements the sweetness of the butternut squash. It adds a unique taste that is most common during the fall and winter.
Rosemary: rosemary can be added either as separate leaves or as dropped in as a bundle and removed right before blending. If possible the rosemary bundle is the better option as the regular loose rosemary leaves have difficulty blending in the soup.
Ginger Powder: ginger powder adds a warm, gentle spiciness to the soup. Ginger complements the sweetness of the squash.
Vegetable Broth: vegetable broth is the liquid component of the soup. It adds a savoury depth and makes the soup taste richer than using only water.
Tips
- Other types of squash can be used instead of butternut squash. Try using different kinds of squash for a slightly different flavour such as buttercup, acorn, or yellow squash.
- Swap out the ginger powder for real ginger flakes. It will be fully immersed once the soup is blended.
- Instead of rosemary pieces, tie your stalks of rosemary together and season the soup. Remove right before blending.
- Make your own vegetable broth at home for a more robust flavour.
Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Butternut Squash
- 1 large yellow onion
- 4 garlic cloves diced
- 1/2 tsp. Himalayan Salt
- 2 tsp. sage
- 1 tsp. rosemary or a rosemary bundle
- 2 tsp. ginger powder
- 4 c. vegetable broth
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400℉/200℃/Gas Mark 6.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut your squash in half and brush the flesh part of the squash with butter. Place flesh side down on the baking sheet. Bake the squash for 1 hour. Remove from oven and scoop out the flesh and place into a bowl.
- In a flame proof casserole dish, add your vegetable oil and turn on to a medium heat.
- Add your onions and cook them until they are softened. About 7-8 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute until it is aromatic.
- Pour in the baked squash and season with salt and pepper.
- Add your vegetable broth, sage, rosemary, and ginger. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low leaving the soup covered and on a simmer for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove from the heat. Either use a standup blender or a handheld blender to blend the soup. A handheld blender can be easily placed into the pot and used to blend the soup. Be careful however as the soup is still hot.
- Blend the soup until it is smooth. If you used rosemary, that herb will most likely not blend very well so there will be pieces of it still in the soup. Serve with a nice sandwich or toast!