Easy Creamy Butternut Squash Soup Recipe (Dairy Free)

It's Soup Season Here in the North East. One thing that I love about a really cold winter's day is that it's a great excuse to make a big pot of soup. Today I want to share my super-easy dairy free butternut squash soup recipe, which uses minimal ingredients and takes less than 30 minutes to make. Oh, and did I mention, it's a delicious and easy healthy butternut squash soup? 

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe: Ingredient Spotlight & Culinary Techniques

This dairy-free soup recipe uses very simple ingredients. If you're looking to make an easy butternut squash soup recipe, you've come to the right place. Best of all, there's no heavy cream, which for those with sensitive stomachs, means it can make a great main dish. 

Culinary Techniques: 

The base to any good soup recipe starts with a mirepoix. This is a French culinary technique, a mirepoix, which consists of three ingredients: onions, carrots, and celery.

Instead of using cream, starch, flour, or beans (which are still great!), I use raw cashews to thicken the soup. If you add them in the soup for about 20 minutes, they will soften, making them easy to blend. Adding raw cashews is a great way to get extra fiber, protein, and healthy fats. In a high-powered blender or even just an immersion blender, this creates a silky texture and a creamy pureed soup.

Sustainable Cooking Tip: 

A pro tip here is to save your onion skins, or vegetable scraps to make vegetable stock later on! I like to place mine in a reusable bag and store them in the freezer until I'm ready to use them.  Check out my favorite containers here.

How to Roast Butternut Squash

The best way to make this soup is by using roasted squash, which adds a sweet squash flavor. You can either take this from frozen or previously roasted. 

Having roasted is gonna give you a lot more depth of flavor, where a raw is gonna give you a little bit more of a starchy flavor, and it's gonna take a little extra bit of time to cook. 

Some butternut squash is available in roasted form frozen, which will save you some time. If you want to roast it yourself, I recommend to cut up the butternut squash in cubes, ensuring you remove the skins from the outside and the seeds from the center of the squash. Place the squash cubes on a sheet tray and coat them in a few tablespoons of olive oil and salt. 

Roast them for about 30 minutes at 400F, or until they become soft and browned. 

Equipment for Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

Now, you don't need very much equipment to make this basic recipe, but there's a few things you will need:  

– Stock Pot or Dutch Oven

– Immersion Blender

Optional: High Power Blender or standard blender

Print

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Active Time30 minutes mins

Keyword: soup

Materials

• 1 Medium yellow Onion
• 3 Garlic Cloves minced
• 2 Carrots diced
• 1 Butternut Squash Roasted
• 2 stalks of celery
• 4 cups vegetable broth or chicken stock
• 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup of cashews
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper to Taste

Instructions

• Place your Dutch oven over medium-low heat
• Add in 1 tbsp of olive oil to heat up
• Add in your Mirepoix ingredients (onions, carrots, and celery)
• Add minced garlic once fragrant
• Deglaze the soup pot with a splash of water or vegetable stock.
• Then add your roasted squash and 1 cup of Cashews
• Top with the remaining broth
• Cover the pot with a lid, allowing a crack for a steam vent
• After about 20 minutes, add a second table spoon of olive oil and use a stick blender or a countertop blender to make a pureed vegetable soup
• Add any additional salt and pepper to taste.
• Taste before serving
• Enjoy hot!

Serving Suggestions: 

Top the soup with some homemade croutons, pepitas, and olive oil. You can also add a sprig of fresh thyme

I actually like to prepare some toast, so this is a whole wheat loaf and I'm just cutting a few slices and I'm gonna let them toast while the soup is cooking. Now you can throw this in the toaster, you can throw this in the oven, but I actually like to use a cast iron pan on the stove.I topped mine with cranberry goat cheese, which adds a really nice balance of acidity with the soup. Don't forget to dip your bread in your soup and eat it and enjoy it while it's hot. 

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe Storage

Once you are finished with the soup, be sure to store the remaining in an airtight container. For longer-term storage, you can use food saver bags and freeze them. I recommend to eat this within a week of making it. For freezing, eat it within three months to ensure the best flavor. 

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