On a cold winter day, a hearty bowl of Butternut Squash Soup with some crusty bread is a perfect meal.
Butternut Squash soup is a hearty meal perfect on a cold winter day. Dip some crusty bread in it and its a hearty filling meal. It is a common flavor during the fall and winter months. Soup is my favorite way to incorporate butternut squash.
I like to add a few other vegetables to give it more depth of flavor. Carrots, onions, celery is a common pairing for stocks, soups and other flavor starters. In this case, it adds flavor while still allowing the squash to be the star of the dish. Its simple, chop up the ingredients, cook together, blend and enjoy – perfect simple meal for beginners. Its good for lunch, dinner and perfect to pack for lunch at work.
You can use your Instant Pot, pressure cooker, or just simply make this in a pot on the stove no special appliance needed to cook it.
Lets get started!
Makes: 4-6 servings
Time: 40 mins
Ingredients:
- 1 medium sized butternut squash – pealed, cavity cleaned out, large diced – approximately 4 cups
- 1 cup onion large rough diced
- 1 cup of carrots pealed, large roughly diced
- 1 cup celery large roughly diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cracked black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 small cinnamon stick
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
- 1 tbsp butter
- 3 cups broth (vegetable, chicken) or 3 cups water with 2 bullion flavor cubes
- Optional- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream or half and half
- In the pressure cooker or pot add all the ingredients (except nutmeg and heavy cream).
- Cook for 30 mins till the vegetables are soft and mashable
- Once cooled a bit, open, remove and discard the bay leaf and cinnamon stick
- Using jar blender, or hand blender, blend all the ingredients together to get a smooth texture
- Add the heavy cream and nutmeg
- Continue to cook on medium heat and bring it to a boil. Keep the cover nearby as the bubble may come up.
- Taste it, adjust salt, pepper and add more broth or cream to get the thickness and flavor you like.
- Serve hot with some toasted bread, sourdough or pumpernickel is great with this soup.
Tips:
- The proportions of the ingredients in this recipe are very flexible, you can add more or less as you have available. Also depends on the size of the squash.
- You can keep this vegetarian by using vegetable stock. If you eat chicken the chicken both will give it more flavor.
- For a creative idea, boil some pasta and use this as the sauce. Add some vegetables or chicken and you have another meal to repurpose the soup.
- This soup freezes really well, if you have leftovers, put them in an airtight container and freeze for later. Should be good in the freezer for up to 4 months, thaw at room temperature or in the fridge and reheat really well before serving. Its hard to make little as butternut squash are pretty large so making a large batch and freezing the rest is a good option to avoid waste.
- For other simple soup recipes check out the Soup Section