Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup – A Fall Classic
We love this butternut squash and carrot soup. It’s a perfect way to enjoy fresh, local winter squash from your garden, a farmer’s market or grocery store.
This butternut squash and carrot soup is one of those meals that makes everyone happy. Its smooth texture and relatively mild spice combination is perfect for even the most sensitive palates. More adventurous eaters can help themselves to extra toppings like toasted pepitas or cashews, chopped cilantro, sour cream or hot sauce. An all around win-win where everyone's taste buds are satisfied.
Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup
A smooth and creamy soup the whole family will love. For more adventurous eaters add a little curry paste, pepitas and cilantro.
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp canola oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 butternut squash peeled, halved, seeded and coarsely chopped
- 2 carrots coarsely chopped
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
- 1-2 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
- 1 Tbsp lime juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (or use milk or cream)
- 2 Tbsp cilantro or parsley
- 4 Tbsp toasted pepitas or cashews
Instructions
- In large saucepan, heat oil and sauté onion until soft. Do not brown.
- Add squash, carrots and sugar and sauté for 10 minutes.
- Add ginger, cumin, turmeric and coriander and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes until veggies are soft. Puree soup using an immersion blender or food processor.
- Add Thai red curry paste, salt and pepper, lime juice to taste.
- Slowly add coconut milk (milk or cream) to soup.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro or parsley and toasted pepitas.
Notes
Coconut milk is a great alternative to the cream or milk in this recipe.
If you have less adventurous eaters, serve cilantro and toasted pepitas on the side. Consider taking out a bowl or two before adding the curry paste.
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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
Calories: 296kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 15g | Sodium: 389mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 10g | Iron: 4mg
Here are a few extra tips and tricks I find helpful when making butternut squash and carrot soup.
How to Chop and Peel Butternut Squash
Peeling and chopping the butternut squash is definitely the hardest part of making this soup. Here are a couple of tricks to make it easier:
- Cut the neck of the butternut squash off. This gives you nice flat edges that you can use to safely balance your squash.
- A vegetable peeler will work, but I prefer standing up the squash and using a large knife to remove the peel.
- If your squash is really tough, use a paring knife to poke a few holes in it all the way around, then pop it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. This will soften the rind a little and make it easier to cut through.
Get more squash cutting, storing and cooking tips here:
How to Safely Puree Soup
You know you’re veggies are ready to puree when they’re soft and you can easily squish them with the back of a spoon against the side of the pot.
I love using a hand held immersion blender to puree soups. It’s quick and easy, requires very little clean up and is much less tricky than using a blender. However, a blender or food processor will work too, it just requires a little extra caution.
Hot Soup in A Blender
Hot soup in a blender can be dangerous as it spurts and splatters hot soup about. This happens when the hot soup expands and hot steam tries to escape – it can lead to serious scalding. To be safe…
- fill the blender less than half way
- cover it with the lid but remove the small cover from the little opening to allow steam to escape
- cover the little hole with a folded tea towel
- start pureeing on low
- repeatedly let the steam vent by removing the towel then continue to puree at higher speeds
- empty blender and repeat with remaining soup
Given my recent haul of butternut squash from our garden, I suspect I might be making a few more batches of this soup in the coming months!
If you make this soup, let me know what you think and how everyone around the table doctored it up. Leave a comment or take a photo and tag #getgettys so I can see it and like it!
Sign up to get articles by Getty delivered to your inbox. You’ll get recipes, practical tips and great food information like this. Getty is a Professional Home Economist, speaker and writer putting good food on tables and agendas. She is the author of Manitoba’s best-selling Prairie Fruit Cookbook, Founder of Fruit Share, a mom and veggie gardener.
Hi there! Loved the tomatoe recipes! I have acorn squash this year. Will it work with your soup recipe?
Hi Katharine,
Glad you enjoyed the tomato recipes! Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, you can use acorn squash. You’ll find it’s almost impossible to peel and you won’t get the same amount of flesh from the acorn squash. I would roast two acorn squash and then puree it. When making the soup, sautee the onions, soften the carrots and add the seasonings as described, then add the pureed acorn squash with the stock. I find acorn squash a little drier and less sweet than butternut squash, so you may need to adjust the seasonings and amount of liquid a little.
Good luck and let me know how it goes.
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