Butternut Squash Soup Where the Oven Does the Heavy Lifting
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It is 12:30 on the first properly cold Sunday, the oven is ticking as it heats, and you own a sweater and no soup. This butternut squash soup recipe takes 43 minutes, 30 of them unattended in the oven. Warm, velvety and undemanding is also the brief for a good partner, and this one will not text you back late.
Roasted squash, soft onion, a pinch of nutmeg and a swirl of cream.
The squash goes in halved and cut side down at 400°F with a little olive oil, salt and black pepper. While it roasts, butter, onion and garlic soften in a big pot with cumin and a pinch of nutmeg. Scoop the squash in, add the broth, blend, and finish with cream and a scatter of pepitas.
What you need
- 1 butternut squash, halved
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 2 tbsp pepitas
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 oz ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
How to make it
- Halve the large butternut squash, scoop out the seeds, and dice the onion and mince the 3 garlic cloves about 8 minutes of prep.
- Drizzle the squash halves with 1 tablespoon olive oil, season with salt and black pepper, and roast cut side down at 400 F for 30 minutes until tender.
- While the squash roasts melt the 2 tablespoons butter in a large pot and saute the onion and garlic 5 minutes then stir in 1 teaspoon cumin and the pinch of nutmeg.
- Scoop the roasted squash flesh into the pot and add the 4 cups vegetable broth.
- Blend the soup until smooth with an immersion blender then season with salt and black pepper.
- Stir in the 2 tablespoons heavy cream for richness and ladle into bowls.
- Garnish each bowl with the 2 tablespoons pepitas and a drizzle of the remaining olive oil.
Notes
Cooked leftovers keep three to four days refrigerated, per USDA FSIS. The soup thickens as it sits, so loosen it with a splash of water or broth when you reheat, and taste again for salt.
The 1 tablespoon of olive oil goes on the squash before it roasts, and the rest is for drizzling over the finished bowls. Dice the onion small, and mince the garlic fine, so both disappear into the soup instead of turning up in it like uninvited guests. Roasting cut side down lets the flesh soften against the pan while the skin protects it, and the squash comes out tender enough to scoop with a spoon.
If you plan to freeze it, leave the cream out and stir it in after you thaw and warm it. Cream can separate in the freezer, and it is easy to add at the end.
The skin stays on for the roast and stays behind when you scoop, so there is no peeling anywhere in this recipe. Keep the head of the immersion blender below the surface of the soup while it runs, and hold the pot steady. Hot soup splashes, and nothing kills the mood like wearing dinner.
Nutmeg is strong, so use the pinch the method asks for and no more. It should sit in the background, warming the squash without announcing itself, like a good houseguest who knows when to stop talking.
Swipe this one into your week and the agent puts the squash in the cart, so you can spend your energy on something besides carrying a gourd to the register.
Swaps that actually work
This butternut squash soup recipe is easy to bend, as long as the squash stays roasted.
The butternut squash is the point, and the roast is what makes it sweet and deep. Sweet potato or a small pumpkin can stand in, and each will taste a little different, so season by taste.
Vegetable broth can swap for chicken broth if you are not feeding a vegetarian. Butter can be swapped for more olive oil. Heavy cream can be swapped for coconut milk, or left out if you want a lighter bowl, and the pepitas for toasted sunflower seeds.
The swap that costs you the dish is water in place of the broth. The soup turns into a situationship: warm, vague and unwilling to commit to any flavor. Keep the broth, and salt it properly.
If it goes wrong
A butternut squash soup recipe is simple enough that most problems come down to seasoning or blending, and both can be fixed in the pot.
It tastes bland. Salt is the first fix. Add a pinch at a time, stir and taste, and keep going until the squash tastes like itself. A few extra grinds of black pepper help, and so does a small splash of vinegar or lemon juice.
It is lumpy or stringy. You were impatient with the blender, and the blender, unlike some people, rewards patience. Keep it running a while longer, moving it around the pot. If strands remain, pass the soup through a sieve.
It is too thin. Put the pot back over medium heat and let it simmer for a few minutes, stirring, until it coats a spoon. Next time, use a little less broth, or roast a bit more squash.
The squash was not soft after 30 minutes. A larger squash can take longer. Slide a knife into the thickest part, and if it resists, give it 10 more minutes cut side down. Roasted squash that is not tender will not blend smooth.
What to serve with it
A butternut squash soup recipe like this one is happiest with something to dunk. The default is a bowl, a spoon and a piece of crusty bread. Anything with a crust does the job.
The better version of the default is a grilled cheese, cut into soldiers for dipping. The thing in the fridge that lifts it is a handful of sharp greens, such as arugula, tossed in a little lemon and olive oil, which gives the sweet, smooth soup something with an edge to lean against.
It works as lunch the next day. Reheat gently on the stove so the cream does not break, and finish with a few fresh pepitas for crunch.
Why this one earns its place
The 8 minutes of prep are chopping an onion, mincing three cloves of garlic and halving a squash, and the oven covers the 30 minutes after that. The pot only needs you for the sauté, the blend and the garnish.
It is comfort food after a bad day, and it does not ask you to be at your best. The blender handles the rest, and what is left for you is chopping an onion and standing near something that smells good.
It is also a small, quiet win on a cold day. Eight minutes of prep, a long roast, and a pot of orange soup that makes the kitchen feel like you have your life together, or at least like someone with a life together lives there.
If you want to keep the soup season going, try creamy tomato basil soup. For something with a bit more heft, chicken noodle soup is a classic. And meal prep for the week shows how a pot like this feeds more than one lunch.
More like this: all American recipes in Crave Corner.