Served piping hot with a hunk of crusty bread, this creamy, nourishing butternut squash soup recipe is fall comfort food at its best.
My favorite fall tradition is making butternut squash soup on Sunday afternoons. On a brisk day, there’s nothing more soothing than chopping and simmering vegetables over a warm stove. As you cook, the kitchen fills with the cozy scent of sage, rosemary, and butternut squash, and when you’re finished, steaming bowls of butternut squash soup (that will last all week!) reward you for your work.
In the past, my go-to butternut squash soup recipe has included coconut milk and curry spices, but this fall, I found myself craving one that was a bit more traditional. When I say traditional, I don’t mean that I use chicken stock, heavy cream, or butter in this recipe. It’s a delicious, all-veggie healthy butternut squash soup with ginger, sage, and rosemary. This is basically fall in a bowl.
We’ve been loving this soup lately – it’s creamy and nourishing, perfect for satisfying cozy fall cravings. With only 10 ingredients, it’s easy to make, so cook a big batch today, and enjoy the soup all week long! Happy fall. 🙂
Butternut Squash Soup Recipe Ingredients
To make this easy butternut squash soup recipe, you need 10 simple ingredients:
- Butternut squash – This soup packs in 3 pounds of squash, so look for a medium-large one at the store or farmers market. If you don’t have a scale at home, I recommend weighing the squash when you buy it!
- Yellow onion and garlic – These veggies add delicious depth of flavor.
- Fresh sage and rosemary – I don’t reach for rosemary as often as some other fresh herbs, but I absolutely love it here. Along with the sage, it makes this soup cozy and complex.
- Ginger – Its warm flavor highlights the autumnal taste of the herbs and squash.
- Extra-virgin olive oil – 2 tablespoons add the perfect amount of richness.
- Vegetable broth – Because the blended squash becomes creamy on its own, there’s no need for dairy, coconut milk, or nuts here! With veggie broth as its base, this is a vegan butternut squash soup recipe.
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper – Add them with the onion at the start of the cooking process, but make sure to taste and adjust at the end as well. That way, you’ll make a soup you really love!
Let’s cook!
First, chop the veggies! Sauté the onion until it becomes translucent, add the squash, and cook until it begins to soften. Then, stir in the herbs, garlic, and ginger. Pour in the broth and simmer until the squash becomes tender, about 20 minutes.
When the squash is soft, transfer the soup to a blender. Blend until the soup is vibrant orange and creamy. Finally, pour it into bowls, garnish with chopped parsley and pepitas, and enjoy!
What to Serve with Butternut Squash Soup
Enjoy this soup as a starter, side, or main dish. When I’m making it the center of a meal, I serve it with good crusty bread, homemade focaccia, avocado toast, or corn muffins and a simple veggie side or fall salad. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Simple Lemon Green Beans
- Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Zest
- Simple Roasted Beets
- Rainbow Kale Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing
- Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Roasted Beet Salad
Alternatively, serve it as an appetizer with a hearty vegetarian main dish like Roasted Cauliflower Steaks, Vegan Meatball Sandwiches, Homemade Mac and Cheese, Sun Dried Tomato Pasta, or a grilled cheese sandwich!
If you love this butternut squash soup…
Try my ginger miso soup, curried lentil soup, or many-veggie soup next, or check out this post for more of my favorite soup recipes!
Butternut Squash Soup
Equipment
- 5.5-Quart Dutch Oven (I personally use the Staub Cocotte)
- Blender (I've used my trusty Vitamix for years)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 (3-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- ½ tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 3 to 4 cups vegetable broth
- Freshly ground black pepper
For serving
- Chopped parsley
- Toasted pepitas
- Crusty bread
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, salt, and several grinds of fresh pepper and sauté until soft, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the squash and cook until it begins to soften, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic, sage, rosemary, and ginger. Stir and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant, then add 3 cups of the broth. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the squash is tender, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Let cool slightly and pour the soup into a blender, working in batches if necessary, and blend until smooth. If your soup is too thick, add up to 1 cup more broth and blend. Season to taste and serve with parsley, pepitas, and crusty bread.
Made this today. I’ve been gluten free for two weeks now. All my joint aches are gone. It’s a miracle!
Didn’t have any ginger so I used sage, cumin, turmeric, and a bit of cinnamon. I swirled it with sour cream and it was delish.
Thanks.
Hi Karen, I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup!
How much ground ginger would you suggest to use, as I don’t have whole ginger to grind.
Thank you!
I would start with 1/2 teaspoon and add more to taste. Hope this helps!
I’m not usually a fan of butternut squash soup but this was great!! My husband loved it too, he requested it in the first place and I’m glad I made it! Love the fact that there’s no milk or cream in it. It’s a winner!
So glad you love the recipe!
The Butternut Squash soup is amazing! It’s my new favorite soup. My husband made hommade sour dough bread to go with it, and it made the soup even better!
I’m so glad you loved it!
wondering if this can be frozen for future meals as it is for one person?
Hi Chris, yep! It freezes really well.
Never made butternut squash soup before, and it was perfect! My family loved it! Thank you for the recipe!
I’m so glad you loved it!
I like it. Kind of an earthy flavor. I add pumpkin seeds as a topping when I serve. Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve made this four times now — twice in the last two weeks! — and it is just perfect. I do have your book too which I love, but it’s so convenient to find something online. I had to comment tonight to thank you for such reliably delicious recipes. I usually make my puréed squash soups with coconut milk, thinking I needed that creaminess, but this is perfect exactly as written. I do have to double it for my family of five so we have leftovers! Thanks again
Hi Cat, I’m so glad you loved it!
My husband said “this is a keeper,” and my 14-year-old son ate a big bowl. I am so happy to have a new healthy and delicious recipe to add to my rotation. Thank you. I did add a little coconut cream at the end.
Hi Marti, I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it!
The flavor is delicious, texture is so smooth!
I’m so glad you love the soup!
For the quality of the recipes & amount of recipe access without having to buy the cookbook…I don’t mind a few ads – just scroll on by…plus there are no more ads here than on any other site. Agree with Andrew, you went through the entire page to get to comment section just to complain…I recommend you make one of their recipes- you’ll soon find its SO worth it to use your thumb a bit doing some scrolling to have some phenomenal meals!
Hi Michele, I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying the recipes 🙂
Awesome flavor with ginger kick. Made it for a luncheon and everyone loved it!!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Can this be made with dried herbs instead?if so, can you give the quantities? Thank you!
Hi Robin, I would try about 1/2 teaspoon each of dried sage (or thyme) and rosemary.
Really delicious!!! I just had to improvise on the herbs , I used herbs de provonce . I went ahead with 4 cups broth but then had to cook the soup to reduce to it to more thick consistency.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I love herbs de provence 🙂
I used this recipe for my senior catering class project for my hospitality major. The guests loved it so much that weeks afterwards guests were emailing my professor for the recipe. We did add cortland apples to it, that everything else the recipe as is. Thank you!
I’m so glad it was such a hit! Thank you for sharing!
If you use MyFitnessPal you can plug a recipe link into it and it will match the ingredients to the database and give you the nutritional info. It came out to ~2000 calories for the batch. I figured it’s 8 generous servings.
So 1 serving would be
236 calories
51g carbs
6g fat
9g protein
16g fiber
7g sugar
Turned out perfect! I went a bit hardcore on the ginger with no regrets.
Hi Vanessa, So glad you loved it!
Excellent soup. Loved it and am making it again. It’s going into my permanent recipe file. Thanks!
Hi Martha, I’m so glad you love the recipe!
So… You don’t like sage, but you added it anyways, and now you blame the recipe? Come on.
Delicious! I make squash soup from various recipes and a variety of winter squash regularly. I can’t say that I’ve ever tried a bad recipe, though some are better than others. Yesterday I needed a dish to pass for a pot-luck dinner, and I decided on butternut squash soup because I have loads of butternut squash, and it would be something different because nobody ever brings soup to these dinners. This recipe sounded like it would be good for a crowd… not real spicy, gluten free, dairy free. I’m so glad I tried it! It may be my new favorite! I used broth made from chicken boullion instead of vegetable stock and uncrystallized ginger instead of fresh, because I had those on hand. I knew it would be thick, so I started with 4 cups of broth. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly, and, upon tasting, added a pinch of red pepper flakes and an additional half tsp of black pepper. It was great! I had a cup of the leftover for breakfast this morning and, as expected, it’s a bit spicier than when it was fresh, and I like it even better! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Marcia, I’m so glad you loved it!