Simple Butternut Squash Soup
When I was a typical kid, I was a finicky eater especially when it came to vegetables. As far as I can remember the only veggies I ate were peas, carrots, mushrooms, cauliflower and potatoes. Tiny onion pieces in meat dishes were painstakingly picked out and decorated the side of my plate meal after meal. My parents tried their best to ply me with all sorts but to no avail. Popeye could keep his spinach and the whole other lot too.
Strangely, once I listened to my father’s pleading to try some butternut. He mentioned it was sweet. Immediately my ears perked up. Sweet, you say? One mouthful of the stuff and I was sold forever. The South African way of preparing it is with generous lashings of butter, a tonne of sugar, a bit of salt and if you’re lucky some ground cinnamon. It all will be mashed to create a smooth, irresistibly sweet pile of goodness, more fit for a dessert than a side dish.
Shortly afterwards we went on holiday to Cape Town. For the first time ever I saw butternut soup on the menu. Living a bit more on the wild side than before I ordered it and have been hooked ever since. Now it’s your turn. 
Simple Butternut Squash Soup
Preparation: 25 mins – Cooking: 25 mins
Ingredients
- 15ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
- 30g (1 oz) butter
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 900g (2 lbs) butternut, peeled and sliced
- 900ml (1½ pints) vegetable or chicken stock
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- parsley, for garnishing
Method
- Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, add the onion and garlic and gently sauté.
- When the onion has softened after about 5 minutes, add the butternut and stock and stir well. Bring to the boil. Simmer for 25 minutes or until the butternut is soft.
- Blend the soup with a hand-held blender. Season to taste and garnish with parsley.
Serving Suggestion
- Your favourite type of bread, buttered, will go down a storm.
That looks really good! Soups make for such a nice start to the meal.
by Olga
on 12. Feb, 2009
Looks good! Butternut squash soup is one of my favorites. I really like how such a simple soup can end up being so good!
by Kevin
on 13. Feb, 2009
This is definitely my family’s favorite soup too!!! Simple and easy, yet so comforting!!!!
by nina
on 13. Feb, 2009
The color looks so pretty. We like nutmeg in our’s!
by The Duo Dishes
on 13. Feb, 2009
wow, what a colour! Spring came to town?
by Olasz
on 16. Feb, 2009
I didn’t realise just how easy it was to make home made soup, thanks for this recipe. It looks fab and tastes very impressive for something so simple. I didn’t have any parsley so sprinkled over some coriander and a little black pepper, and served with a small dollop of greek yoghurt.
by Spicy Stuff
on 23. Mar, 2009
Just made this recipe i have got to say it is lovely! first time i’ve tryed butternut squash just because i didn’t know what to do with it before i saw this recipe, but very nice i must say.
Looks like i will be having soup for the next few weeks!.
by ohh yessss!!!
on 10. Jun, 2009
did this for a catering exam, found adding an extra clove of garlic and sauteing the butternut squash also added a lovely strong flavour. Tastes nice garnished with corriander too!
by Bethannie
on 20. Aug, 2009
Try adding half a chopped,deseeded red chilli,and/or the grated rind of half a lemon. This really gives it added zing!
by Carol
on 25. Sep, 2009
[...] used this recipe and this one, and sorta, came up with something based around what I had on [...]
by Old Mother Hubbard’s Butternut Squash To The Rescue Soup. Or, Cream Of Orange Stuff. « Bao and Blintzes
on 14. Oct, 2009
delicious soup ….i omitted some of the water for the stock and added coconut milk yummy!
by jean bean
on 16. Oct, 2009
I just made your recipe and it’s super yummy! Thanks for sharing.
by Debora
on 23. Oct, 2009
Mountain of butternut squash in the garden this year..just made gallons of your lovely soup, incorporating some of the above ideas into some..thanks from a blustery Northern France..
by Diana Ward
on 01. Nov, 2009
Incredibly easy to make, yet really delicious.
by Jane
on 01. Nov, 2009
Just made this. Very easy to make and tastes yummy. Now have something to take in flask to work tomorrow
by Jenny
on 01. Nov, 2009
lovely, easy recipe, for an interesting diference stir in drained can of chickpeas to the blended soup.
by val
on 02. Nov, 2009
I roast the squash first , makes it even sweeter with a really strong flavour.
by Kasie
on 02. Nov, 2009
Does anyone know how long the soup will keep for. I made some on Monday – and it’s now Saturday – would it still be ok to eat or not? AND can it be frozen?
Thanks xxx
by Jaqui Somers
on 21. Nov, 2009
Jacqui: As a general rule I don’t eat food that is more than 3 days old, so I can’t tell you whether the soup is okay or not. As long as you don’t add cream to it I don’t see any reason why you can’t freeze it though!
by Michelle
on 22. Nov, 2009
i am not a cook but being recently been made redundant and being at home all the time i thought i would give this a try believe me its the easiest thing i have ever done and the taste is great the only problem was peeling the buttersquash what a pain
by alsilverfox
on 23. Nov, 2009
christina
a frying pan a blender and a knife
dead easy
by alsilverfox
on 24. Nov, 2009
I USED A DUTCH CHEESE SLICER TO PEEL IT,CUT DOWN ON THE TIME.DOWN SIDE,MY HANDS ARE ALL ORANGE FROM THE FLESHY CENTRE.SMELLS GREAT WHILE COOKIN!!!
by ART
on 26. Nov, 2009
This was a great recipe. Very simple and very delicious
by VN
on 02. Dec, 2009
i needed a recipe to try and recreate a soup i had in San Jose when the added two scallops to the middle of each bowl of soup.
by Sarah
on 12. Dec, 2009
Great recipe, just made it, really, really tasty.
by Susipops
on 12. Dec, 2009
I made this a few weeks ago and it was absolutely delicous! I don’t cook (well unless you include bunging frozen food in the oven that is!) but this was simple to do but had an amazing taste to it. I added a little nutmeg to mine and some fabulous fresh bread (shop bought obviously!). My parents are coming down from London tomorrow to see my little one in his first nativity play and guess what they will be eating for their first course…. butternut squash soup! Thanks for recipe! xxx
by laura f
on 16. Dec, 2009
try fresh chopped ginger also a bit differrent
by cyd
on 29. Dec, 2009
I omitted the black pepper and the chicken stock (used filtered water)……still amazing taste.
by Phil R
on 30. Dec, 2009
Ooo! This sounds Yummy!
I’ll be making it for dinner tonight!
by F-O-O-D = YUMMMMMM
on 10. Jan, 2010
Try and bit of chopped up fresh sage to give it a twist. Is delicious!
by Nicki B
on 10. Jan, 2010
Simply delicious – You will not be disappointed !
by JANE
on 13. Jan, 2010
Lovely, delicious soup. I added a carrot and some fresh red chili pepper to give it a bit of a kick – scrumptious!!
by Kaye
on 13. Jan, 2010
[...] a cooking rut, especially when it comes to soups. My Achilles’ heel is pumpkin soup. It can be plain, roasted or curried but sometimes it gets a bit [...]
by Curried Carrot and Split Pea Soup | Greedy Gourmet
on 20. Jan, 2010
Easy to make,omitted olive oil and used used lite one cal instead still tasty.Can use it as a free food at slimming world
and therefore eat as much as i want.
by R. Fisher
on 06. Feb, 2010
Lovely with a splash on coconut milk added at the end
by Sue B
on 16. Feb, 2010
So easy to make and so tasty, followed carol’s tip of adding half a red chilli and the rind of half a lemon. Will definatley be making it again.
by angie
on 16. Feb, 2010
just cooked this recipie delicious !!! I put some curry paste in with the onions and garlic what a winter warmer. I also found peeling the butternut squash a pain as well never mind more peelings for my compost bin!!!
by Hilary
on 20. Feb, 2010
Regarding peeling, put it in to the microwave for a minute or minute and a half, it will get softer and easier to peel. good luck
by Olenka
on 28. Feb, 2010
Wow!!! Its amazing, give it a try!!!
by Sammy
on 04. Mar, 2010
followed everyone’s tips, roasted squash, onion & garlic with cinnamon and seasoning. Once blended, delicious!
by Marion
on 10. Mar, 2010
Thank you sooo much for this recipe!!! I didnt have anything on my fridge today but butternut squash,onion and garlic! Made the soup and it was lovely…but as I didnt have 900ml of stock (I used chicken stock), I add 300ml of coconut milk. My God, the soup was delicious!!
by Elizeane
on 17. Mar, 2010
One of my two allocated butternut squashes turned out a bit icky and stringy inside, so I substituted it with the same weight in sweet potato – nice! Added a dash of Noilly Prat after sauteing the veg, seemed to lift it. Smidgen of cream & of truffle oil (cheap now at the supermarket) – yum!!
by anna
on 07. Apr, 2010
Jacqui (21nov09): If you want to keep the soup a few days in the pan, just bring it to the boil once each day for a couple of minutes to keep it fresh. You may have to add some water to replace what you boil away.
Great recipe. Have added it to my recipe collection for re-use.
by dee
on 20. Apr, 2010
What a great recipe. We are attempting to grow our own butternut squash this summer and if it works, I can see lots more of this delicious soup on our menu.
by Alan
on 27. Apr, 2010
Absolutely love this recipe… have made it three times now and every time it tastes better! Thank you. Might try the coconut milk suggestion next time… yummy!
by Sam
on 25. May, 2010
Gosh I made this today as I absolutely love butternut squash and was watching a cooking programme which said to roast the pips with some soy sauce…which I did and they turned out well. I was fortunate to find your receipe for soup and made 3 times the amount due to the size of the squash but it turned out really lovely. I will definately try the coconut milk and curry paste. Thank you for sharing this receipe it was truely delicious! I note what people say about peeling the squash but I didn’t find it too bad with a potato peeler.
by Sandy
on 13. Jun, 2010
Thanks for the positive comment, Sandy! Any feedback is always appreciated. There are other butternut/pumpkin soup recipes on Greedy Gourmet in case you want to get more adventurous.
by Michelle
on 15. Jun, 2010
Giving this soup a try tonight!
Leaving out the garlic & salt, and using low salt stock so my 7 month old can share it with us. As the squash was hers in the first place and i’ve pinched it to make soup lol.
From all the great comments I cannot wait to start cooking!
x
by Lottie
on 07. Jul, 2010
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe. It sounds so easy, and I need “easy” at the moment as I am heading for chemo again next week for the second time in two years.
I live on soup for part of each cycle, so looking forward to trying this. The reviews say it all!
by Linda
on 30. Jul, 2010
I just made this for my lunch, it was delicious. Thanks. Useful too because I managed to use up the squash that I had leftover from my beef stew.
by Kate
on 12. Aug, 2010