Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup
Quick and easy comfort food, Butternut Squash and Carrot soup is perfect when it gets cold out. With only a few simple ingredients but packed full of flavour and nutrients, you’ll be making this soup all winter.
Easy Squash Soup
Who doesn’t love soup? Not only is it a big bowl of warm comfort food, but it is healthy and budget friendly too. Perfect for lunch, dinner or even a warming snack on a freezing day, it’s almost always a good time for soup.
This easy Butternut Squash and Carrot soup has only a few ingredients but is full of flavour and packed with nutrients. Butternut squash is high in vitamins A, E and C. While carrots are loaded with biotin, beta-carotene plus potassium and vitams B6 and K1.
If you want another easy soup that uses plenty of carrots then you need to try this Thai Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup.
Ingredients
The full list with quantities is in the recipe card below, but here are some helpful notes on the main ingredients.
Butternut Squash – The weight of a butternut squash can vary a lot. In the recipe card I am using 500 grams squash which is the weight once the squash is peeled and chopped. 500g will be a very small squash or half a very large squash.
Butternut squash can be a bit daunting to prepare but it is very simple with the right tools. You just need a nice sharp knife and a good quality vegetable peeler. Peel the tough skin from the squash. It can be easier to peel if you slice off the bottom to give it a flat stable surface. Then slice it down the middle and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and soft flesh before cutting into 1/2 inch cubes.
There is always the option to buy prepared squash – most supermarkets do bags of frozen squash cubes. You can use them straight from the freezer, just extend the cook time by 5-10 minutes to make sure it is cooked and soft.
Excess Butternut Squash?
In order to avoid food waste if you have, say 600 grams squash you could reduce the amount of carrots by 100 grams OR use a little extra stock to make a larger portion of soup. Of course if you want you can simply use the excess squash for another recipe or save it for later. You can freeze cut cubes of squash for another time.
Carrots – I prefer to peel carrots, but you can leave them unpeeled. Try to cut the carrots into similar size pieces as the squash – about ½ inch cubes.
Stock – Use chicken or vegetable stock depending on the dietary requirements of whoever is eating the soup. I use two stock cubes with 750ml/3 cups of boiled water. Use homemade stock if you have it, or 2 teaspoons bouillon powder.
Onion, garlic, chilli and thyme: aromatics to add flavour to the base of the soup. You can leave out the chilli or add extra depending on your preference for spice. Fresh thyme is best but you can sub in a teaspoon of dried in a pinch.
Crème Fraîche – Stirred in at the end to make the soup extra creamy. Optional but very welcome. You can leave out, or use a plant based crème fraîche for a vegan soup.
Serving Suggestions
I love this soup with anything cheesy – like a cheese scone, a grilled cheese sandwich or crispy cheese crackers. But you can also never go wrong with a nice buttered roll.
For a bit of crunch, top squash soup with croutons or crispy chickpeas.
If you want more heat you can increase the amount of chilli in the soup – either by adding more fresh chillies when cooking or stirring in extra red pepper or chilli flakes when serving.
Swap the butternut for a different type of winter squash – try acorn squash or pumpkin.
Storing
Store Butternut Squash and Carrot soup in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Reheat on the stove over a medium heat or in the microwave, stirring regularly, until piping hot.
Freeze squash soup for up to 3 months in a suitable container. Defrost and reheat as above.
Top Tip
I love to reuse the big 500g plastic butter or yoghurt tubs with lids as I find these perfect for one portion of soup. I use a marker to write the name of the soup and the date I made and froze it. Bonus of using the same style tubs is that they also stack well in the freezer!
More Easy Soup Recipes:
- Red Pepper and Gouda Soup
- Butternut Squash and Harissa Soup
- Cream of Vegetable Soup
- Scottish Lentil Soup
I hope you like this recipe as much as I do!
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Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup
Ingredients
- 500 grams (1 lb) butternut squash peeled and chopped in ½ inch pieces
- 500 grams (1 lb) carrots diced
- 1 onion diced
- 1 chilli diced (optional or more if you like it spicy)
- 2 cloves Garlic diced
- 6 sprigs thyme
- 750 ml (3 cups) stock either chicken or vegetable
- 4 tbsp (0.25 cups) crème fraîche optional, to serve
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- chilli/red pepper flakes to serve
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over a medium high heat.
- Sweat the onions, garlic and chilli plus pinch salt for a couple of minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the squash and carrots and cook 3-4 minutes.
- Add the thyme sprigs then pour in the hot stock. Bring to simmer, turn the heat down, put the lid on and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.
- Carefully remove the thyme sprigs (the leaves should have all fallen off into the soup) then blend either using a stick blender or transfer to a blender.
- Stir in 4 tablespoons of crème fraîche to serve (optional), season to taste and garnish with chilli flakes.
