Healthy Butternut Squash Soup
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Healthy Butternut Squash Soup is easy to make in your crockpot, instant pot or on the stove! This tasty soup is paleo, vegan and gluten-free!
This post was originally shared in December of 2018 but has since been updated.
Is there anything more delicious and cozy than butternut squash soup? This easy healthy butternut squash soup recipe is a staple in our home during the fall. Made with only a few ingredients – it’s quick to make and so tasty!
This paleo butternut squash soup is naturally gluten free, dairy free, whole30 friendly, and vegan!
We love butternut squash. It’s delicious roasted or even made into chips or in Ground Beef Butternut Squash Skillet! However.. we all know that butternut squash soup is where it really shines.
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- Wholesome ingredients – Typically butternut squash soup is loaded with lots of funky ingredients, heavy cream, and loads of cheese. This soup doesn’t have that and still has great flavor and that creamy texture!
- Creaminess from veggies – Most butternut squash soup recipes have a lot of heavy cream in them, but this soup is dairy-free! It gets all the creaminess from chicken broth + veggies.
- Easily customizable – Whether you need to make this lower salt, lower carb.. there’s a substitution for basically everything below!
- Veggie loaded – There is one serving of veggies per serving of soup, and you can easily bulk up that amount by adding more carrots, celery, or onions.
Ingredients:
- butternut squash, carrots, onions, garlic (you can also purchase pre-cut butternut squash)
- vegetable stock or crockpot bone broth if not vegan/vegetarian
- black pepper, salt
- paprika, cinnamon, turmeric
- extra virgin olive oil
You’ll also need a blender for this recipe. A crockpot or instant pot will also be helpful, or you can make it on your stove!
Substitutions
There are so many ways you can customize this Butternut Squash Soup Recipe. Feel free to add heavy cream, more spices, and customize with the different toppings you enjoy. You can also add in other veggies like potatoes or leeks for more flavor.
Herbs- Feel free to add thyme, rosemary, or sage to this recipe. 1/2 teaspoon of dried herbs will be the perfect amount!
Milk/Cream – You can add regular milk, cream, almond milk, or coconut milk to this soup. Blending the soup with milk will make it thinner in texture while making it creamier.
Broth – You can use beef or chicken broth instead of vegetable broth
Can butternut squash be roasted? You can roast the butternut squash and veggies in this soup rather than sautéing or cooking in the crockpot/instant pot. Coat all vegetables in olive oil and roast at 400 for 30 minutes. Make sure to roughly chop veggies rather than dicing them if roasting them. You can also follow our Roasted Butternut Squash Soup recipe.
Sodium: If you’re looking to reduce sodium, omit the salt and use a salt-free broth. The nutrition facts reflect using a salt free broth.
Before we get into how to make butternut squash soup, I thought you might want to learn how to cut a butternut squash!
How to cut butternut squash:
- The first step to cutting/preparing a butternut squash is to peel it. This is the best vegetable peeler!
- Once your squash is peeled, cut the neck off (the cylinder shaped side).
- Remove the bulbous (round) shaped slice and slice longways. You’ll find that this part of the squash has seeds in it. Scoop the seeds out and discard (or save them and roast them up for a snack!)
- The top half (or ‘neck’) of the squash doesn’t have seeds in it. You can use this part of the squash as is. At this point, you can cube the squash.
Now that your squash is cut, let’s go over how to make butternut squash soup. I’ve included instructions for the crockpot, instant pot, and stove – but the photos show the crockpot.
How to Make Healthy Butternut Squash Soup:
Making butternut squash soup isn’t hard at all! This healthy butternut squash soup comes together in just one pan or your crockpot/instant pot.
- Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Sauté squash, carrots, onions + garlic until slightly browned + soft on edges.
- Place cooked vegetables in crockpot. Cover with stock and add spices. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- Allow soup to cook + blend it up! My Vitamix always gets jobs like this done in no time! You can also use an immersion blender or food processor.
- Top with bacon and pumpkin seeds if desired. That’s literally it… it doesn’t get any easier than that!
What is the best way to blend soup?
You can blend this soup with an immersion blender, regular blender, or even a food processor.
Make sure to be very careful when blending soup in a regular blender. If you are blending hot soup, it can lead the blender to steam up or build pressure which can result in the lid popping off. To avoid that, here are our tips for blending hot soup in a regular blender.
Allow the soup to cool for a few minutes if you can. It’s best not to take this right off the stove/instant pot/crockpot and put it in the blender. Give it a few minutes uncovered/off heat to release some steam.
Blend the soup in batches. It’s probably best to divide this in half and blend it 1/2 the batch at a time. By doing this you’re leaving room in the blender for the soup to move around.
Remove the center cover from the blender and cover with a towel instead. Most blender tops have a removable plastic piece in the center. Take this center piece out and put a clean dish towel over the opening while blending. (You don’t want soup on the ceiling!). Doing this allows the steam to vent out and prevents pressure from building up in the blender. Make sure to hold your hand over the dish towel to avoid it from moving/splattering.
What can you serve with this Easy Butternut Squash Soup Recipe?
Toppings– Here are some topping ideas for easy butternut squash soup: I like to garnish it with bacon and toasted pumpkin seeds. You can add fresh herbs, heavy cream, spices, and croutons.. the options are endless!
Bacon- You can add bacon bits on top
Protein- Serve it alongside these Chicken Tenders for a well balanced meal
Bread- If you’re not paleo/whole30 – a big loaf of crusty bread is the way to go 🙂
Salad – This Strawberry Avocado Goat Cheese Salad is my favorite
A meal – I like to serve this with our Stuffed Acorn Squash
Storage
This butternut squash soup will last for 5 days in the refrigerator.
Can this be made ahead? – Yes, you can serve the soup straight from your blender. You can also make it the day before and reheat it in your microwave or in a pot on the stove.
Can this soup be frozen? Yes! Let leftover soup cool to room temperature before transferring it to a proper storage container. I love these airtight containers for freezing leftovers!
You can freeze this soup for up to 3 months. We have more tips on how to freeze soup!
FAQs
Yes! Butternut squash soup is totally healthy for you. Butternut squash soup is loaded with vitamins and minerals, and this butternut squash soup has sneaky veggies too!
Butternut squash soup can be good for weight loss depending on the recipe you use. This recipe has no heavy cream, is low in salt, and low in calories which makes it perfect for weight loss!
Butternut squash soup can easily be made better depending on your toppings or add ins. A swirl of cream, bacon crumbles, or croutons can really elevate the flavor!
Yes, you have to peel butternut squash for soup. The skin of butternut squash soup is not edible because it is so thick
Other healthy soup recipes:
We love soup SO much that we actually have a free healthy soup ebook! We also have a post filled with 25 Healthy Soup Recipes!
Healthy Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 lbs cubed butternut squash about 5 cups
- 1 cup diced carrots
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 quart vegetable stock
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper add more to taste
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
Instructions
Stove Top instructions
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté squash, carrots, onions + garlic until squash for 5 minutes.
- Once the veggies have cooked, add stock and spices to the pot. Stir together. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Once the soup has cooked, puree with an immersion blender, or allow soup to cool and blend with a blender. Blend until smooth. Serve and enjoy!
Crockpot Instructions
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté squash, carrots, onions + garlic until squash for 5 minutes.
- Place cooked vegetables in crockpot. Cover with stock and add spices. Stir together. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4 hours.
- Once the soup has cooked, puree with an immersion blender, or allow soup to cool and blend with a blender. Blend until smooth. Serve and enjoy!
Instant Pot Instructions
- Set instant pot to Sauté. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté squash, carrots, onions + garlic until squash for 5 minutes.
- Stir in spices and add stock.
- Cover instant pot and set to sealing, Pressure Cook for 8 minutes.
- Once cooked, allow the pressure to manually release for 10 minutes. Quick release any remaining pressure
- Puree with an immersion blender, or allow soup to cool and blend with a blender. Blend until smooth. Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- I like to garnish with fresh cilantro and toasted pumpkin seeds
- You can add bacon bits on top
- If you’re not paleo/whole30 – a big loaf of crusty bread 🙂
This was so good – and fast & easy! I used my Instapot and blended with an immersion blender when done cooking. Couldn’t be more simple! I thought about adding canned coconut milk, but was just being lazy and didn’t feel like – but you’re right, this recipe doesn’t need it! We paired it with chicken/apple sausage. Husband enjoyed it as well! And I have one serving left in the freezer (that I told him was all mine 😉).
So glad you liked it!
Super easy and delicious, great flavor combination! Glad to have discovered your site as my husband are making the transition to a clean diet.
Thanks, Debbie! Glad you both enjoyed!
Not Heart Healthy. Gotta figure out ways to make recipes taste good without so much sodium! 🧂
Hi Laura – There was a typo in the nutrition facts – thanks for calling that out. This has estimated 216g of sodium per one cup but of course every recipe/nutrition facts will be different depending on your ingredients that you use. You can modify this by using no salt broth and omitting the salt entirely for the recipe, which it clearly says in the post. Before you leave a 2 star rating on a recipe that you haven’t even tried – try reading the blog post.
Just made my first batch of this using our garden harvest, will be canning the remaining 3 squash when I make more. It is delicious at taste test. Nice and creamy without any dairy. DELICIOUS!
So happy you liked it, Mike!
I tried this recipe and all I have to say is it is incredibly delicious! I appreciate such a good recipe!
So happy you like it, Lee Ann!
So easy and delicious !
So glad you liked it, Lori!
This was delicious!!! So much so that I didn’t wait to purée it and ate it as is! Only difference was that I didn’t have cinnamon so I added the same amount in apple pie spice! LOVED THIS!!
Yum!! sounds great!
This is by far the BEST butternut squash soup I’ve ever had. So easy to make and satisfying. My 6 yr old loved it as well.
Love hearing that, Carolyn! So happy you both liked it!
Could you do this with frozen butternut squash cubes?
I haven’t tried that but I’m sure it would work! Might need to cook it for a bit longer so they thaw
Delicious soup. Definitely cut back on the pepper, I reduced to 1/4 tsp and was still too much for my liking. Otherwise a very delicious and hearty soup.
Adding sweet potato, tblsp curry powder and coconut milk makes this soup out of this world.
But I have to ask, why market this as vegan then post photo of bacon bits with the soup?
Hi Ana – We aren’t a vegan food blog. This recipe is paleo, whole30, gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free and vegan. Vegan is just one of the diets that this soup appeals to – and we wanted to garnish it with bacon for photos. It’s easy enough to not top it with bacon for vegans to enjooy. Glad you liked it!
Really loved the taste of this soup! We added goat cheese, and an Italian herb salad topper mix, plus bacon pieces for me!! The broth didn’t completely evaporate for me on the stove so I just drained it, blended everything else and then slowly added broth back until I got it to the consistency I liked!! It was great!!
So glad you liked it, Maria! That goat cheese topping sounds amazing! You don’t need to drain the broth – everything is meant to go in the blender 🙂
So good! I’ll add this recipe to my favorite.
Thanks, Dee Dee! Glad you liked it!
So easy to make.& so delicious. Everyone loves this soup. Family always asks for this soup when it is squash season; it’s one of their favorite fall soups.
Thanks, Toni! Happy your family enjoys it 🙂
This recipe was the best one yet! I didn’t have turmeric and added non sweetened coconut milk and my husband had 2 helpings! Super delicious!
Thank you so much, Molly! So happy to hear this!
I’ve made this three times this week. I think this is my fav soup I’ve ever tasted.
Thank you so much, Lauren! I really appreciate it!
It’s autumn and it’s time for this butternut squash soup….family loves this soup!
So glad you all enjoy it, Toni!
Overall, a great creamy soup, even without the dairy! For me and my taste, the pepper amount was way too much, but I know everyone’s tastes are different. I’m not going to fault the recipe for a spice that I didn’t care for. Next time, just going to cut it back. I made mine in the InstantPot and then poured into countertop blender. So creamy and THAT COLOR! A couple things – I didn’t have veggie stock, so used homemade chicken stock I already had…and to cut the intense pepper (again, that’s my tastebuds perception), I actually put in applesauce because I like a butternut squash soup with a hint of sweetness. Will I make again, ABSOLUTELY!
Glad you liked it, Kelly!!
Love this soup! I topped it with goat cheese and bacon bits! I didn’t have a food processor so I had to blend it a couple times after it cooked, it’s definitely better after it’s been blended well.
Oooh how have I never added goat cheese?! That sounds amazing!!
Loved this soup! I love that the ingredients are so simple and clean, and it’s so easy to make! I love the sweetness of the soup, and the fact that it’s purely coming from the veggies, makes me feel great about eating it! This will definitely be in my lunch rotation from now on! Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
So glad you liked it, Stevie!
Made this soup tonite…my husband and I love it!! I added the extra herbs and it is so delicious! This will be my go to recipe for winter soup. Thank you!
Yay! Thank you so much, Christine! I’m glad you liked it!
This butternut squash soup is bursting with flavor, a heaping bowl of this is all you need on a cold winters night to feel warm and relaxed
So glad you like it!!
So perfect for cold winter night! Another amazing recipe.
Thanks, Jennifer!! It definitely is good for a cold night 🙂
Made this the other night and was surprised at how easy it was. Have been enjoying it for lunch all week. Really yummy!
Sooo Easy! Sooo Good! You wound never know
there isn’t cream in this.
So glad you liked it, Deb!