Delicious Butternut Squash Soup Without Dairy

There aren’t many meals that are as sweet and comforting as butternut squash soup. Believe it or not, this soup is all fruit: an apple, an orange, and yes, a butternut squash. (It is, indeed, a fruit!) With a crusty loaf of bread on a winter’s night, there’s really not much better.

Butternut soup is not only delicious, it also has plenty of health benefits. From helping your vision to healing your gut microbiome, you’ll be fooled into thinking that something that tastes this good can’t also be healthy.

But it sure is.

What Is Butternut Squash? 

“Smooth as butter, sweet as nut,” the butternut squash was bred in the 1940s by Charles Leggett in Massachusetts. As he said, butternuts have a smooth and pale outside, and an orange and sweet inside. They’re the lovechild of hubbards and goosenecks, with a long neck atop a round bottom.

Not all squash are created equal. There is acorn squash, spaghetti squash, winter squash and summer squash. Other squashes include pumpkins, hubbards and kabochas. But butternut squash remains my personal fave. No other squash matches its sweetness, and it tastes complimentary as a side to just about anything.

Butternut Squash Soup Ingredients

Only a few staples are necessary for a delicious butternut squash soup. You’ll need a good-sized butternut, of course, plus some kind of broth. (Vegetable broth keeps it a vegan soup.) And the best butternut squash soup ingredients would also include a granny smith apple, an orange and an onion. 

I’m not sure if this a South African thing or just a good thing, but following my mother’s steps I always add in a little curry powder and a pinch of nutmeg. 

To make it extra indulgent, a can of coconut milk does wonders. (For any creamy vegan soup, actually.) 

Butternut Squash Soup Health Benefits

Butternut Squash: First and foremost, this dense fruit (you read that right) is super high in fiber. It’s also high in minerals and vitamins, providing over 400% of your daily vitamin A needs in one cup. This squash’s nutritional profile is most famous for preventing eye disease and certain cancers. 

Onion: Not to be outshined by more exotic ingredients, the common yellow onion is a wonderful source of prebiotic fiber to feed the healthy bacteria in your gut. It’s also been shown to reduce blood pressure and bad cholesterol.

Apples: Providing both soluble and insoluble fiber, an apple a day really can improve your overall health. Eating apples reduces your risk of many diseases, from strokes and heart disease to high blood pressure and diabetes. Their pectins are even more powerful when cooked, think: homemade applesauce. 

Oranges: Natural compounds in citrus fruit known as liminoids have been proven to protect against a variety of cancers. Known for their immune boosting vitamin C content, oranges are also high in flavonoids that lower inflammation and blood pressure. 

Extras:

Coconut Oil: One of the safest oils in the kitchen, coconut oil can be heated to high temperatures without its structure changing and becoming toxic (like olive oil). It has a high concentration of medium-chain triglycerides, popularly referred to as “MCTs.” MCTs are antimicrobial, can reduce appetite, and make your skin look great (or your pet’s skin).

Curry Powder: Most curry powders include some kind of mixture of turmeric, coriander, mustard, cumin, fenugreek, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and cayenne. All of these spices are so rich in their own nutrients that only one thing can be said for sure: curry powder is very good for you. 

Coconut Milk: Half coconut flesh, half water, coconut milk is a luxurious canned product to enhance soups, stews, smoothies and desserts. High in medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) fat, coconut milk is filling, and full of minerals like iron, magnesium, manganese and copper. 

Vegetable Broth: All the hype is about bone broth these days, but veggie broth packs a powerful nutritional punch. Vegetables provide plenty of amino acids, which studies show are what you need to make collagen. (Not eating collagen, which doesn’t actually translate to more internal collagen production.) Loaded with vitamins and minerals, vegetable broth makes any dish more detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and generally healthy. 

How To Make Butternut Squash Soup

This butternut squash soup recipe starts with sauteing onions in coconut oil. Once the onions are soft and translucent (about 5 minutes), add the squash, curry powder and nutmeg, and saute for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. This won’t cook the butternut fully, but it will lend it some extra good flavor.

Add the apple, orange rind and juice, vegetable stock, salt and pepper, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the squash is soft and cooked.

Turn off the heat and add the coconut milk. Then, pour it into a high speed blender or a food processor and blend. (One of my tricks with soups that I’m going to blend is to wait until it’s time to cool to add some kind of liquid—whether that’s some stock I put aside or some coconut milk, like in this recipe.)

Garnish with parsley and serve with fresh bread.

If you love this soup, you’ll also love our White Bean and Kale Soup!