Elana's Pantry

New York Times Bestselling author Elana Amsterdam founded Elana’s Pantry, the go-to website for easy, healthy, grain-free, Paleo recipes, in 2006

Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

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With just 4 ingredients –oil, onion, squash, and water, Butternut Squash Soup is a delicious comfort food that’s easy to make! If you want a richer soup, use my homemade Bone Broth recipe in place of the water. Bone Broth will add protein as well as gut healing nutrients. Use water if you’re making this easy soup recipe for your vegan friends. Vegetable stock will also work very well in this soup recipe for vegans.

When I make this Butternut Squash Soup I use a butternut squash that weighs around 2.5 pounds before I remove the peel and the seeds. If you use a larger squash your soup will be thicker and creamier. Likewise, if you use less squash, the soup will become more watery. This easy soup recipe is incredibly flexible and would be fantastic with acorn squash, butternut squash, or even pumpkin.

Butternut Squash Soup
Serves: 6
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In a large soup pot, warm oil over medium heat
  2. Caramelize onion, sauteing 10-15 minutes until golden brown
  3. Add squash cubes and cook for 10 minutes, until squash is barely soft
  4. Pour water or stock over squash mixture
  5. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes
  6. In a vitamix, puree in small batches on low, working up to high speed until mixture is smooth
  7. Serve

This Paleo Butternut Squash Soup recipe is perfect for a cold winter’s day. We’ve had a lot of those lately. I haven’t worn anything outside but snow boots in all of 2007. And we just had our 7th snow storm in seven weeks. I don’t mind, I was raised in California where we pretended that a heavy frost was “snow.” Here’s to staying warm with a big dose of healthy soup!

Here are some of my other healthy soup recipes:

Comments

  1. I just made butternut squash soup on Sunday! I use carrots and squash and roast them first. I season with EVOO and a seasoning blend that has salt, pepper, turmeric, allspice, chili pepper, coriander, cayenne, nutmeg and funegreek. I add fresh grated ginger and a little cinnamon to the soup as well. After the veggies are roasted I throw them in the pot with the stock, sautéed onions and garlic. I then use the immersion blender or Vitamix to puree till velvety. It’s easy, healthy and so good. Brought some to work today and coworkers who say they don’t like squash loved it. I like to garnish with some pepitas or a little popcorn for texture and a little swirl of pure maple syrup. If not doing paleo brown butter and sage is amazing on top. Looking forward to trying your version next!

    Reply

  2. I have not tried this recipe, but I have my own tried and tested, handed to others too.
    Butternut,onion, cooked and blended,
    seasoning, coconut milk (once soup is not scolding) add half an orange squeezed,
    Nutmeg, salt, pepper tp your taste

    Can have hot or cold

    Reply

  3. Holy moly! This is so so so so good!!!!!!!! Thank you! I made it as listed and it’s smooth, creamy, filling, and very tasty. It didn’t last a day and it was just me eating it. ;)

    Reply

  6. This soup is really god with rosemary. I make it often. I never measure anything and it always turns out great! It is also very filling.

    Reply

  7. Great recipe!!! My family loved it!!! I had a very large squash and I added 4 cloves of crushed garlic and a bit of cayenne to warm it up and it definitely was a hit even with my picky husband. Thanks!!!

    Reply

  8. Made this wonderful soup this evening. After the difficult part (the peeling, scooping out the seeds, & cutting up the squash), it was easy peasy to make.
    I did use chicken stock & also added enough water so that the cubes of squash had around an inch of liquid above the tops of the cubes.
    Simmered the cube mixture as per directions. During the simmering, I added salt, ground pepper, & 3/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg.
    After cooking, the pot of soup was set aside for cooling. Using an immersion blender right in the pot worked very well.
    Next time I make this soup, I will use vegetarian stock. Bet it will be just as good. This soup is a keeper!

    Reply

    • You don’t have to peel the butternut. You can bake it in the oven and then scoop out the soft flesh. I did it today and it turned out perfect (and much easier than peeling).

      Reply

  9. I made this wonderful and beautiful soup tonight. so simple to make, so elegant!! I made it without stock, just water. I wanted a bit of protein, so I added 1 /4 cup of cashew pieces before blending, and served the soup with a dollop of yogurt on top (goat as I am lactose intolerant but have no problems with goat milk products). It was a hit; everyone loved it. Thank you Elana.

    Reply

  10. I’ve made a half recipe of this twice now. I used frozen organic butternut squash and no chicken broth, though I could have used real chicken broth I wanted to test the no chicken broth for flavor since I have several vegetarian friends and family members. The frozen butternut squash works wonderfully and makes this soup quick enough for a weeknight. I only make a half recipe at a time because my children won’t eat soup, and I don’t want leftovers until the end of time. I also use my immersion blender to blend the soup right in the pot. I don’t have a regular blender so this was my only option anyway, and it works great! Thank you for this wonderful grain free recipe!

    Reply

  11. Love, love, cream soups but I’m allergic to dairy. This recipie was tasty, but had a little too much onion flavor for me. I added a couple drops of honey and it balanced it right out! Will make this again! Thank you for this recipie and all others!! This site has saved my family’s annoyance of my special dietary needs!!!

    Reply

  12. I have to say that squash and pumpkin are my favs for anytime of the year. I live in northern Minnesota and this is what I crave! I do add 1# of turkey or pork sausage for more “meat and potatoes” that is the norm for here. Everyone loves it! I am canning 50# of squash this weekend and it will make creating such wonderful dishes(like this one) fast and easy. Thank you Elana for all of your time and efforts. It really helps in my family to recipes that are gluten free and low starch that everyone loves. I also love your books they have been a godsend in my busy life!

    Reply

  14. I’m craving Mulligatawny Soup/Stew today. But I’m going to make your Butternut Squash soup b/c it looks so much easier. I need simple right now.
    I’d LOVE for you to come up with a Mulligatawny Soup.
    I had one at a restaurant with a great balance of curry, vegies, apples…
    Wouldn’t it be great Super Bowl food???? : )
    There are so many vaiations online, and most of them with a LONG list of ingredients. Too much for me right now with sick kids.
    Stay warm and well!
    : )
    Noel

    Reply

  16. Made the soup yesterday. I liked the creaminess of the soup, but didn’t quite care for this one. I think I am just not a butternut squash person. I will eat all that I made though.

    Reply

  19. Golden Yummy in a bowl. I created Elana’s butternut squash soup. It was sooooo easy to make although I did require my husbands muscles to cut into the butternut squash for me. Yikes! The funny thing is, I didn’t think our picky 5 year old would eat any of it after the first bite. She has sensory disorders…so we never know what she will eat easily without a fuss. She LOVED it and asked for more! I couldn’t believe it. My husband asked for several bowls. He made the comment that it is like we are eating at a top resturant now that mommy is cooking all these new recipes. Unfortunately there must be one at the table that disagrees with the over whelming majority. Our 8 year, who usually eats just about everything and likes it…did
    not like it at all. I did get her to finish her bowl but she did not ask for more. The great thing is…it made enough for me to fill several glass bottles for the freezer.

    Now we have golden yummy in the freezer.

    Thanks a bunch Elana for helping me to build my confidence in cooking again and cooking gluten free. I’m not sure what our next adventure will be but I’m sure it will be a yummy one!!

    P.S. I blogged about in on my facebook and my livejournal (glutenfreelife).

    Reply

  20. I created this magical soup tonight. I loved the color of this soup. It was so easy to prepare other than the cutting of the actual butternut squash which required the muscles of my husband. The crazy thing is…my picky 5 year old devoured it but my 8 year old who usually eats just about everything I make – made faces at the soup. I conveinced her to eat her soup or at least part of it or else she would face the sheriff!! She finally ate it. The great thing is – I filled some glass jars with the left over soup and put in the freezer. I also have a jar in the fridge for tomorrow. My husband thought it was great and had 2 or was it 3 helpings.

    Thanks Elana for another fantastic recipe to add to my notebook of gluten free recipes. Yummy and healthy!! I’ll blog about it later on my facebook and livejournal.

    Yummy to my tummy!

    Reply

  21. Hubby added plain horseradish to his soup, gave it a flavorful dimension. He is suggesting different proteins for the next batch. Guess this recipe is a keeper!

    Reply

  22. Just made this yummy soup! Kids are enjoying it too! I even made my vegetable stock from scratch. Just think I’ve been composting my veggie scraps without getting all the flavor first. Thanks again! The kids are going for seconds:)

    Reply

  23. I made this tonight and it is wonderful!!! I didn’t feel like getting out my vitamix so I mushed it up with a potatoe masher. I never thought butternut squash soup would be good so I didn’t try it for 38 yrs! I wish I had tried it sooner! Fantastic!

    Reply

  24. I can’t wait to read about your frugal chicken soup and your other soups! Dairy-free, low-fat, nutritious soups make such excellent lunches for me and warm me up! By the way, do you have a carrot soup? Every one I try is on the bland side or with way too much curry for me. :(

    Reply

  25. Hi Elana,

    This soup was fabulous and almost sweet! I am so happy to have another great soup in my repertoire. And I bet it would be great with other winter squash. I made it completely vegan with grapeseed oil and Imagine’s No-Chicken broth.

    For the last two weeks, I’ve been taking my soup to work in glass mason jars. I love that there is absolutely no leakage, that the glass is dishwasher-safe, and that they are cheap (compared with replacing cheapo tupperware) in addition to the 10 other reasons you mention in your other post! My fellow employees comment about the good idea, and I always refer to your blog! I just need to find the half-size ones (like you used for custard) for hummus or almond butter!

    I would love to see a post on how you make your weekly stock with the leftover bones from your Shabbat chicken. Do you add vegetables? I’ve always used fresh chicken (although sometimes cheap parts like necks, backs, wings, and even feet), but this would be another frugal trick/approach that I would like to learn!

    As another side note, my mother has gotten on a kick of making a huge pot of stock…daily. My dad decided that clarified chicken soup (from scratch) beats coffee and now drinks the consomme in a mug around the clock. I’m sure his ulcer appreciates it. :P Lucky for me, my husband and I prefer our chicken soup “dirty” (unclarified, with all the cooked vegetables and chicken).

    I wish you and your family a fun and safe Halloween this weekend! Take care!

    Reply

  26. Hi Elana,

    I was wondering which brand of store-bought vegetarian stock/broth you recommend if homemade is not an option.

    This soup looks tasty…my fiancé loves any recipe that begins with “caramelize the onions…” :)

    Thanks,
    ~M

    Reply

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