A Delicious Four Ingredient Butternut Squash Soup
It's hard to believe how good a butternut squash soup with just 4 ingredients can taste and be so good for you. This soup is not loaded with salt like most of the commercial soups available to us and is ridiculously easy to prepare at home.
The soup is so naturally good, the salt and pepper is optional, to taste so I don't include them as one of four ingredients.
If you use your own homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock, you can also control the amount of salt used in this recipe and guarantee an intense flavor.
Here's a classic recipe for homemade chicken stock but I like to make a batch of stock every time we roast a whole chicken or buy one at the supermarket.
After dinner, I remove any leftover meat for chicken soup or fajitas, throw the carcass and bones in a large stock pot, cover with water and simmer for 35 - 45 minutes until I have wonderful liquid gold that can be used for soups and risottos.
Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a hard winter squash with orange flesh. Besides being a great ingredient to work with, it has tons of nutritional benefits, especially beta carotene. You can read more about butternut squash here.
How long you cook this soup depends on how big a squash you purchased. A large butternut squash takes about 40 minutes and a smaller one, 30 minutes. You can also use a knife or fork to stick the flesh to tell when it is done.
Freezing
My whole family loves this soup so much, it gets eaten up in just a few days so I have never tried freezing it but I can't see why not. I just stuck a pint container in the freezer and will get back to you soon after I give it a taste.
Freezing Update
So after freezing for a a day and letting the soup thaw out in the refrigerator I can report that it was still was tasty but it was no longer at thick nor rich tasting as the non-frozen soup I compared it to from the refrigerator.
I'm not sure exactly how long you can keep this soup in the refrigerator but it doesn't have any dairy, meat, poultry or fish so I'm guessing it can last at least a week so I going to say don't freeze it. Make it and enjoy it.
📖 Recipe
Simple Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash peeled, seeded and cut up into chunks
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 6 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- Salt & pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Peel the squash, cut in half, remove seeds, then cut up into large chunks and put into a large soup pot.
- Roughly chop the onion and garlic and add it to the pot.
- Add the stock and bring all the ingredients to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the squash.
- When the soup is done simmering, remove from heat and purée with either a hand immersion blender.
- If you don’t own an immersion blender, let the soup cool some and purée in a food processor or standard upright blender in batches.
- Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.
Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother
I just tried making a version of this, and I've got to ask: How did you peel it? Mine, the skin was like armor. I ended up cutting it into wedges and roasting first so that the flesh was (barely) soft enough to scoop out.
G. Stephen Jones
Hey Drew, I peeled mine with a standard peeler. It's definitely a little more difficult than a potato, but not too much. Could it be time for a new peeler?
Betsy @ Desserts Required
This is VERY timely because I have not, yet, planned my Thanksgiving menu and soup is the starter. I am really hoping your freezing experiment works because I have to make the soup over the weekend. I love the gorgeous color, too!
G. Stephen Jones
Betsy, I updated the post on freezing and suggest you make it on Monday or Tuesday for Thursday but don't freeze it.
Joan
It seems that a more specific amount (weight or "cups) of squash would be helpful???
G. Stephen Jones
Joan, normally I give specific amounts but that's not how we make this soup and it seems to turn out well every time. Give it a try and let me know what you think. RG
Carla
I just had Butternut Squash bisque at a restaurant last night (New Year's Eve). It was wonderful, so now my interest is piqued. I can't wait to get home and give this recipe a try.