Roasted Butternut Squash Soup — 🍁🧡🍂 Made with roasted butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, sage, thyme, and more to create a gorgeous, creamy, fall-inspired soup that everyone LOVES! Great as a healthy main dish or a perfect side dish for Thanksgiving or the holidays! Serve it in acorn squash bowls for an even more festive look!
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Creamy Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
Fall is officially here and there’s no better way to celebrate the season than with an acorn squash bowl filled with this creamy and comforting roasted butternut squash soup recipe with a hint of natural sweetness that’s brought out by roasting sweet potatoes and carrots with butternut squash.
Curling up with a bowl of this vibrantly colored soup made from a blend of roasted butternut and acorn squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and fall-inspired seasonings like sage and thyme is the best way to really settle into all of those cozy fall feelings.
What brings this easy butternut squash soup all together is the cup of full-fat coconut milk that gets stirred in right at the end. The already silky smooth soup thanks to a quick pureeing turns it into pure creamy decadence.
I love that it’s so rich and creamy but remains both accidentally vegan and gluten-free. Trust me, you’d never realize this butternut and acorn squash soup is vegan unless you were told!
This is a great benefit for those family or holiday gatherings when you are trying to cook for an accommodate different dietary preferences – everyone will be happy with this soup!
Have I mentioned that this soup is so easy to make? Essentially, all you need to do is roast the veggies, mix them with sautéed onions and garlic, add the remaining ingredients, and puree it all together. You can have this soup ready from start to finish in just over 1 hour.
Don’t let the acorn bowls scare you off, either. Making those is the easiest part of all – just halve them, scoop out the seeds, and roast them. Plus, when you use acorn bowls instead of normal ones, that’s one less dish to wash which is a nice win.
While you don’t have to serve in the acorn bowl, I recommend doing so because it adds a rustic and gorgeous touch when served.
Looking for more soups?
For those of you who love soups along these lines, make sure to also check out my Easy 30-Minute Pumpkin Soup and my newer Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup, too!
Ingredients in Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Whether you head to your local farmers market, supermarket, or even your very own garden (lucky you!), you’ll love the amount of healthy veggies in this warm and cozy butternut squash and sweet potato soup.
All the simple ingredients are easy to find, inexpensive, and healthy including the following:
Squash Bowls for Serving (optional but recommended)
- Acorn squash
- Olive oil
- Granulated sugar – This helps the squash caramelize and also cuts a bit of the bitterness and for that reason I suggest it. However, you can omit it and see what happens, or try using maple syrup
- Salt
- Pepper
Soup
- Butternut squash – To save time peeling and chopping, use pre-chopped butternut squash that you can find in the produce section of most grocery stores or in bags in Trader Joe’s or your favorite market
- Carrots
- Sweet potato
- Olive oil
- Yellow onion
- Garlic
- Vegetable broth – chicken stock or vegetable stock will also work
- Sage
- Bay leaves
- Thyme
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Pepper
- Full-fat coconut milk – You want shelf-stable canned coconut milk, not in a carton, not anything that’s refrigerated coconut milk, make sure it’s unsweetened, and don’t confuse cream of coconut or coconut cream (it’s super sweet, and best in a piña colada and not in soup)I suggest full-fat coconut milk for the best deliciously creamy results. As I mentioned already, you can swap it with heavy cream or half-and-half or cashew milk to keep the soup vegan. At the end, if your soup is thicker than you’d like, feel free to add additional coconut milk
Toppings for Serving, optional and as desired
- Toasted sage leaves
- Kale chips
- Pomegranate arils
- Pumpkin seeds
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Roast, sauté, blend, and enjoy. That’s really all there is to making butternut squash soup in a few simple and straightforward steps. Grab your ingredients and let’s get started
- Brush the acorn squash halves with olive oil, sugar, salt, and pepper, and roast them until tender, flipping halfway through. Avoid overcooking them, or they will collapse when you add the soup!
- Add the equal-sized pieces of butternut squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes to a greased aluminum foil-lined rimmed baking sheet, drizzle oil and seasonings on top, and roast until fork-tender.
- Sauté onions in oil in a large Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat until they soften, stirring frequently. Add the garlic, and continue to sauté until fragrant before setting the pot aside.
- Bring the roasted veggies with both, sage, bay leaves, thyme, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and sautéed onions to a boil in a pot. Then, reduce the heat, and simmer before stirring in the coconut milk.
- Pour half the soup into the canister of a high-speed electric blender, and puree until smooth. Pour the blended portion into a pot, and repeat. Season to taste, and pour the soup into the squash bowls, if desired, and add your garnish of choice.
Adjust the consistency
While it’s not required, I like this soup served blended or pureed. If you want to retain a bit more texture, blend half of it while keeping the other half unblended. I like to use my high speed Vitamix blender. Use caution anytime you are blending hot liquids. Carefully pop the top of the Vitamix or your blender to allow a bit of steam to escape but not so much that soup goes flying! I use an old kitchen towel that I drape over the top hole of my Vitamix.
You can also use a handheld immersion blender noting that they are not as powerful so your soup will not get as smooth and liquids tend to spray.
Make sure to remove the bay leaves before blending!
What to Serve with Butternut Squash Soup
Storage
In the Refrigerator: Store cooled soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
In the Freezer: Leftover soup will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 4 months. Use individually portioned containers for quicker and easier thawing.
To Reheat: Thaw frozen butternut squash soup in the fridge overnight. Then, reheat it in 30-second increments in the microwave, stirring in between. Or, warm it in a large soup pot over medium heat on the stove, stirring frequently. Add a splash of coconut milk or broth as needed if the consistency becomes too thick for your liking.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you need to roast the butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots to enhance their flavor and ensure they cook completely. They would not cook enough in just the broth on the stovetop to become soft without taking an extremely long amount of time.
You can’t have butternut squash soup without using butternut squash! However, there are tons of squash varieties in season right now. If you have another favorite such as delicata or kabocha squash and want to mix and match the squash, go for it. You’ll want 1 pound total.
You can also add additional sweet potatoes, carrots, or celery if you have an extra one on hand. Just bump up the amount of broth you add so the consistency is soup-like.
In my opinion, no the butternut squash soup doesn’t taste strongly of coconut milk.
However, I love coconut milk and am a bit immune to the flavor and it blends into the background for me.
If you are very concerned about this, my suggestion is to use heavy cream, half-and-half, or a thicker non-dairy milk such as cashew milk if you’re concerned. That being said, I urge you to make the recipe as-is with canned coconut milk as written.
Yes, every element of this soup is edible, including the bowl it’s served in. It reminds me of serving Beer Cheese Soup in a bread bowl and being able to nibble away at the bowl or scrape your spoon against the interior of the bowl.
Important note though – just the acorn squash flesh is edible, but not the outer tough green skin.
If you have a picky eater at your table who doesn’t love veggies, this is a great way of sneaking some into their bellies.
If you plan to serve the butternut squash and sweet potato soup for a dinner party or holiday gathering and you need more acorn squash bowls, feel free to roast additional acorn squash. Then, double the soup portion of the recipe or as necessary to suit your needs.
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Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
Squash Bowls for Serving (optional but recommended)
- 2 medium acorn squash, halved and seeded
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Soup
- 1 pound butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1-inch pieces*
- 4 medium to large carrots, peeled and cubed into 1-inch pieces
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed into 1-inch pieces
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 small to medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 3 to 5 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 4 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth
- 4 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried sage, or to taste)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 sprig fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1 cup full fat coconut milk, or as desired for consistency**
Toppings and Serving, optional and as desired
- Kale chips
- Pomegranate arils
- Pumpkin seeds
- Toasted or fried sage leaves
Instructions
Acorn Squash Bowls (Optional)
- Preheat oven to 400F, line a baking sheet with nonstick foil if desired for easier cleanup, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds, brush the flesh side with olive oil, evenly sprinkle with sugar (to help caramelize it and cut the bitterness), salt, pepper, and place on the prepared baking sheet flesh side facing upwards.
- Roast for 20 minutes. Tip – While roasting, start chopping the butternut squash, carrots, and sweet potato, and have them ready and waiting. See step 5.
- Remove from the oven, and using hot mitts, flip over the acorn squash, and roast for about 25 minutes more, or until done. It should be fork-tender so that a spoon can easily scoop out the flesh. Make sure not to overcook or the squash will be mushy, collapse, and won't hold the soup.
Soup
- At the same time that you are roasting the acorn squash halves the second time around after they've been flipped, to a separate large baking sheet lined with nonstick foil and sprayed with cooking spray for easier clean, add the cubed butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Roast for about 25 minutes, or until everything is fork-tender; toss once midway through to ensure even cooking. While you're waiting for both the acorn squash and sheet pan of vegetables to roast, move on to the next steps.
- To a large Dutch oven or large pot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, onions, and saute over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, or until onions are beginning to soften; stir frequently.
- Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute, or until fragrant; stir nearly constantly. Set pot aside and wait for the roasted vegetables to finish.
- Add the roasted butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, broth, sage, bay leaves, thyme, cinnamon, salt, and pepper to the sautéed onions, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and stir to combine.
- Remove the bay leaves and thyme sprig if you used fresh in place of dried thyme.
- Pour half the soup into the canister of a high-speed electric blender, and using caution making sure to leave a place for steam to escape (I cover the hole of my Vitamix with an old kitchen towel that I hold in place), puree the soup until as smooth as combined. Start on a low speed to make sure it doesn't go flying, just in case.
- Pour the blended portion into a separate large pot, and repeat the process with the second half soup and blend it. If you want a chunkier soup or soup with more texture, it's okay to only puree and not all of it; or puree none if you want a really chunky soup. You can also use a handheld immersion blender for the pureeing task, noting they aren't as powerful and your soup won't likely get as smooth.
- Make sure to taste the soup and if it needs additional salt or pepper, add it. Additional cinnamon, sage, thyme, or ground nutmeg are also welcome.
Toppings and Serving
- Pour the soup into the roasted acorn squash bowls or bowls of your choice and serve with your favorite toppings including kale chips, pomegranate arils, pumpkin seeds, or additional coconut milk,
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I am disappointed how my soup turned out. ย I did not consider using the squash bowls (I just wanted a fall squash soup to take to work) so I assumed I should add the acorn squash to the soup. ย I was confused because I did not see it added to the soup recipe, but I could not image why I would roast the acorn squash if I wasn’t going to use it. ย I did not read comments first and I did not look closely at the photos. ย Certainly those are my errors!
I prefer recipes that give more measurement specifics. ย What is considered a medium to large carrot ย or large sweet potato? ย How much acorn squash can be added to the soup, if I want to add it to the soup and not keep it for the bowls?
Lastly, the soup is quite spicy hot–perhaps it is due to my inexperience with sage?? ย I don’t mind spicy, but it is over powering the squash taste. ย
I am going to try it again with out ย adding the acorn squash and hopefully, I will get guidance about the measurements. ย Thank you.
I am disappointed how my soup turned out. ย I did not consider using the squash bowls (I just wanted a fall squash soup to take to work) so I assumed I should add the acorn squash to the soup. ย I was confused because I did not see it added to the soup recipe, but I could not image why I would roast the acorn squash if I wasn’t going to use it. ย I did not read comments first and I did not look closely at the photos. ย Certainly those are my errors!
I prefer recipes that give more measurement specifics. ย What is considered a medium to large carrot ย or large sweet potato? ย How much acorn squash can be added to the soup, if I want to add it to the soup and not keep it for the bowls?
Lastly, the soup is quite spicy hot–perhaps it is due to my inexperience with sage?? ย I don’t mind spicy, but it is over powering the squash taste. ย
I am going to try it again with out ย adding the acorn squash and hopefully, I will get guidance about the measurements. ย Thank you.
Hello I this is long comment so let me address in stages:
1. Acorn squash bowls. If you do roast them, you can gently try to scoop out some of that flesh and add it to the soup but really not too much because it will cause the bowls to become weaker and they can collapse. You just kind of eat the flesh of the squash from the sides of the soup as you’re eating the soup. Like eating a bread bowl as you eat soup from one.
2. Things like carrots or a sweet potato and the exact measurement whether it’s 5 ounces or 8 ounces or somewhere in the middle will not matter for this soup nor for most. Soups are very flexible which is why I don’t tend to give exact measurements for things like this so people can use what they have on hand and not stress to buy a perfectly 6.2 ounce carrot or something like that.
3. Sage doesn’t tend to be spicy hot. It’s more earthy but you can eliminate it next time and see how it goes. Perhaps the cinnamon? But it would be rare that 1 teaspoon could overpower a whole big pot of soup.
Thanks for trying the recipe.
On the Butternut Squash Soup, are you supposed to scoop out some of the flesh of the acorn squash and add it to the other ingredients while cooking?
On the Butternut Squash Soup, are you supposed to scoop out some of the flesh of the acorn squash and add it to the other ingredients while cooking?
On the Butternut Squash Soup, are you supposed to scoop out some of the flesh of the acorn squash and add it to the other ingredients while cooking?
The recipe is intended to just bake the acorn squash and use it as serving bowls. If you actually try to scoop out the flesh, they will likely be too fragile and collapse if you wanted to use them as bowls.
If you don’t care about that and are going to use a regular bowl, you can either just not bother roasting acorn squash. OR you can roast them and then add the roasted flesh in with the other ingredients and puree it all together.
It’s a flexible recipe and you can go in a few directions with it.
I love soup season! I will look for a nicely shaped acorn squash at the farmers’ market and stick to the grocery store cubed butternut squash,
I love soup season! I will look for a nicely shaped acorn squash at the farmers’ market and stick to the grocery store cubed butternut squash,