Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

This roast butternut squash soup recipe is velvety smooth with a hint of warming spice. The roasted butternut squash gives real richness and depth of flavour to a comforting and delicious soup. 

Roasted butternut squash soup

Vegetable soups are surely one of the great comfort dishes. Easy to make, economical and nourishing, they can also be mouth-watering and impressive. Roasting the butternut squash brings out its natural sweetness and intensifies the flavours for a truly delicious squash soup. 

A native of central America, the butternut is now widely available here throughout the autumn and winter and has proved much more popular than the round orange pumpkins favoured in much of Europe. It’s easy enough to grow if you have the space and keeps for ages, so there’s good reason to love the butternut. This glorious golden roasted butternut squash soup shows off this new British favourite to perfection.  

If you love butternut squash also try my butternut squash mash – I’ve got all the hints and tips for delicious velvet smooth perfection!

Vegetables with orange flesh like the butternut squash contain beta-carotene, which the body needs to make vitamin A.

Vitamin A is essential for healthy skin and mucus membranes, a healthy immune system, and good eye health and vision – your mum wasn’t kidding when she told you to eat your carrots if you wanted to see well. 

Your body needs a little fat present to make use of the beta-carotene. This soup has fat in the form of the olive oil but you can add a drizzle of extra oil (hemp and flax are both excellent as they are high in omega 3s) cream, or a knob of butter (or just butter your bread!).

Back to the soup

I’ve used a batch of roasted butternut squash here. I make this almost every other week add to soups, rice dishes, pasta, shakshuka etc. It can be refrigerated for about 5 days, or alternatively can be frozen to use whenever you want. Adding some here and there is a great way to get extra veg into every meal. 

I usually add some warming spices when I roast the squash, but you can add them whilst making the soup if you prefer to leave some plain or vary the spices for every dish.   

For this recipe, we are going to make a classic soffritto mix and then add the ready roasted butternut squash and good quality stock or bouillon and whizz it all up to make make a delicious soup. Effortlessly fuss-free!    

The recipe is very adaptable. You need to keep the proportions of liquid, any spices and the roast butternut squash about the same, but you can vary it every time so your don’t get bored. I’ve even got a few tips to make this easy soup date night or dinner party worthy! 

Why you will love this

• This butternut squash soup recipe is very adaptable; you can easily vary the flavours, by add some spice for example.
• It’s easy – all you need is a butternut squash, onion, carrot and celery, spices, olive oil and stock. 
• All the ingredients are are affordable and easy to find and store.  
• Butternut squash soup is perfect for bulk cooking, so double up the recipe, portion and freeze. In the days when I worked in an office, I used to take a tub of frozen soup to work every day, allowing it to defrost on my desk before microwaving for lunch.  
• This soup looks gorgeous and tastes wonderful!

Roast butternut squash soup: ingredients

• Roasted Butternut Squash – I like mine lightly spiced. See our step by step tutorial on how to prepare a squash for roasting. 
• Carrots, Celery, Garlic & Onion – The base of a soffritto. You can make your own; if I had a large freezer I’d make a huge batch every few months and freeze it. Alternatively, you can buy an expensive jar of ready made soffritto paste, or (again expensively) ready chopped vegetables.   
• Olive Oil – Good quality extra virgin oil. I try and only use extra virgin oil.  It is unrefined and has a good balance of omega 3 and 6.     
• Stock or Bouillon – Use your favourite here, vegetable or chicken depending. 

Optional 

• Lemon – A squeeze of lemon juice lightens and brightens and lifts almost every soup to another level.  
• Butter – Add a pat of butter when you whizz the soup up for an irresistible creaminess and smoothness. 
• Maple Syrup – A quick glug adds a glamourous touch of sweetness and extra flavour, making your roast butternut squash soup a little more special for when you are entertaining.  

Roasted Butternut Soup Step-by-Step 

Here is everything you need to know to make roasted squash soup successfully every time, along with some extra handy tips and tricks!  

Step one – Roast your butternut squash, ready to make the soup. This can be done ahead of time, and if you make a bulk batch, you can use the rest to add to all sorts of dishes through the week.  I always have a tray of cooked squash in the freezer, ready for soups or salads. 

Step two – Peel the carrots, onion and garlic and roughly chop. Cut the celery into chunks. 

Fuss Free Tip 

No need to cut everything up too finely, we are going to blitz it all up to soup – a rough chop is fine.  

Step three – Put the olive oil and prepared carrot, onion, garlic and celery into a large frying pan and fry over a medium heat until the onion is translucent. You can do this in the saucepan in which you are going to make the soup to save on washing up, but it is faster and easier in a frying pan. 

Step four – Transfer the vegetables to a saucepan and add the roasted squash (reserving some for garnishing the soup). Then pour over the stock and bring to a gentle simmer until the carrots are soft. 

Step five – Whizz the soup with an immersion or stick blender. (If you prefer, you can use a blender or food processor.) Then taste and add adjust the seasoning if necessary.  

If you like a creamier soup, you can add a knob of butter at this stage. I also like to add a squeeze of lemon juice, which gives a really vibrant flavour.

Serve your roasted butternut squash soup garnished with the cubes of roasted squash you set to one side at step four. You can also garnish with a spoonful of plain yogurt or a drizzle of oil and a sprinkling of fresh herbs.  

Hints, Tips & Variations

• You can swap the spices around to suit your taste. I like a North African spice blend but Middle Eastern or Indian blends would work well. Choose something you like.   
• This soup freezes well, so make extra. Just allow it to cool and pack it into plastic pots. Defrost and reheat in microwave or on the stove top.
• I like soup garnished. Top yours with seeds, a few cubes of the roasted vegetables, chopped fresh herbs, plain yoghurt – whatever you like.  

Fuss Free Tip 

Never feel that you need an expensive immersion blender to make soup.  A cheap and cheerful, single-speed blender will do the job just fine. They are not, however, always suitable for very hot liquid. I have also learned that they are not always dishwasher-proof. My first blender cost £5 and lasted about 10 years and I used it several times a week. You can find something that will do the job very well for about £12/US$15.  

When buying a blender, look at the wattage (the higher it is, the more powerful the blender). You don’t need multi speed and you don’t need lots of attachments (though I find a whisk is useful). 

To clean an immersion blender, first rinse it under the tap. Then dunk it in a jug of warm water with a spot of washing up liquid and whizz it for a few seconds. Then just rinse off the soap. 

More Easy Soup Recipes

• Good soup often starts with a soffritto recipe. Make a big batch, freeze and use every time you make soup.
• Carrot and lentil soup
• Pumpkin and sweet potato soup 
• More easy soup recipes

More Roast Vegetable Soups

• Roast Swede Soup – Velvety-smooth, this roasted swede soup with parsnip and carrot is warming, fragrant and delicious.

• Roast Celeriac Soup – rich deep flavours and a touch of sweetness. One of my favourite winter soups.

• Roasted pepper, tomato and lentil soup – packed with flavour and a glorious colour!

Summer Soup Recipes

• Gazpacho with canned tomatoes
• Pea and lettuce soup
• Salad soup
• Pappa al pomodoro