Butternut Squash Soup
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This creamy butternut squash soup is full of flavor and surprisingly easy — ready in under an hour and pure fall comfort in a bowl.
If you’re looking for a butternut squash soup that’s as easy as it gets, this is it! It starts with my favorite time-saving trick: pre-cut squash cubes from the supermarket. From there, everything goes into one pot to simmer before getting puréed into silky perfection. One important note—please follow the recipe as written. Every ingredient, including the full measures of sugar, salt, and cream, is key to the rich flavor and texture that make this soup so special.
For the finishing touch, you get to choose your own adventure: keep it classic with fresh thyme or give it a different twist with curry powder. Either way, you’ll end up with a bowl that’s warm, comforting, and worth making again and again.
I love this butternut squash soup with crusty bread or buttermilk biscuits, or for a lighter fall meal, alongside my shaved Brussels sprouts salad.
“So good and so easy!”
What You’ll Need To Make Butternut Squash Soup
- Butternut squash & red bell pepper: The squash brings a naturally sweet, nutty flavor and blends into a silky texture, while the pepper adds a gentle sweetness and bright color. Skip frozen squash—it tends to make the soup watery.
- Onion & garlic: The aromatic base that gives the soup its depth right from the start.
- Water & heavy cream: Water keeps the flavors clean and balanced, while a splash of cream at the end makes the soup luxuriously smooth.
- Salt, sugar & thyme or curry powder: Salt pulls everything together, sugar enhances the veggies’ natural sweetness, and your choice of thyme or curry powder sets the flavor tone—to herbal and earthy with thyme, or warm and lightly spicy with curry.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1. Prep the vegetables. Add all of the vegetables, salt, and sugar to a large soup pot, then pour in enough water to cover them.
Step 2. Cook until tender. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 35 minutes.
Step 3. Purée the soup. Use a hand-held immersion blender (or a standard blender) to blend until silky smooth.
Pro Tip: If using a countertop blender, remove the center cap from the lid and cover the opening with a folded kitchen towel—this lets steam escape and prevents a soup volcano.
Step 4. Add the cream. Pour in the heavy cream and stir until combined.
Step 5. Finish and serve. Bring the soup to a simmer and stir in the fresh thyme (or curry powder). Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Serve hot, or make ahead—the soup keeps nicely for 3 days in the fridge or can be frozen for longer storage.
Pro Tip: If you want to dress up the soup with a garnish, try pomegranate seeds for a sweet-tart burst, toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) for a warm crunch, or homemade croutons for buttery crispness that soaks up the soup in the best way.
More Fall Soups That Warm You from the Inside Out
Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 2½ pounds pre-cut butternut squash, 7 to 8 cups, cubed (see note)
- 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
- 7 cups water
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¾ cup heavy cream, plus more for serving
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon curry powder for a different flavor profile)
Instructions
- Combine the squash, pepper, onion, garlic, water, salt, and sugar in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 35 minutes
- Using a hand-held immersion blender, purée the soup until silky smooth. (Alternatively, cool the soup slightly, then purée in a blender in batches, making sure to leave the hole in the lid open to allow the steam to escape.) Stir in the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Mix in the thyme (or curry powder), then taste and adjust seasoning (depending on the sweetness of the vegetables, you may need a touch more sugar). Ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle with more cream if desired, and serve.
Notes
- For the best flavor and texture, use fresh butternut squash in this recipe. Frozen squash can release extra water when cooked, which may dilute the soup and make it thinner or less flavorful.
- Make-Ahead/Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The soup can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container. It can also be frozen, without the cream, for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the refrigerator for 12 hours and then reheat it on the stovetop over medium heat until hot. Once heated through, add the cream and bring to a simmer before serving.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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Amazing! I added cinnamon and some curry powder and balanced it out nicely!
This was a delicious recipe but the high sodium content makes me cautious. Is there a way to make a lower sodium option?
Hi Patrick, glad you liked it! There’s a tablespoon of salt in this recipe which definitely boosts the sodium; feel free to cut back as needed.
My daughter usually doesn’t like the special meals I make, but she Loved this one. Emphasizing that it was much better then my potato soup and rice porridge. It was very delicious. Any suggestions to add spice to it? Thank you.
Hi Kyle, Glad you liked it! You could add some heat by adding 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper. If you taste it and want more heat, you can add another 1/4 tsp. Hope that helps!
Has anyone ever tried adding apples to the recipe?
I loved the simplicity of this soup, and it was pretty good. However, I felt it was somewhat bland. I added about one tablespoon of fish sauce along with the cream at the end, and that really took it up a notch.
Butternut sounds wonderful except 1191 sodium, yikes. We watch our intake and that’s plain scary. How to adjust salt would be helpful.
Hi Victoria, There’s a tablespoon of salt in this recipe; feel free to cut back as needed.
Gosh, there are so many different measurements out there for sodium content. I use Penzeys Kosher Flake Salt (280mg sodium/.25 tsp, as noted on pkg.), for salt flavor with lower sodium content due to size of salt flakes. At that rate, 6-8 servings of this soup would clock out at 560 mg – 420mg of sodium per serving, based *only* on the 1T of Penzeys salt used. It doesn’t factor in added sodium in dairy or vegetables, however. YMMV, though, based on *type* of salt used. Great recipe!
I’ve been searching for the perfect butternut squash recipe…but so many of them have apples in them, and that combination just doesn’t work for me. But I found this recipe absolutely perfect! The only changes I made were to omit the sugar (it was plenty sweet) and I think I added more like 3/4c of heavy cream because that was what I had as leftovers from another recipe. A definite keeper!!!
Does not have well developed flavors. Bland
My husband and I loved this soup! I did add some chicken broth instead of all water and added a dash of cayenne pepper and dash of dried thyme.
Thanks for a great recipe!
I make this recipe often- always a hit. I’ve even tried swapping out the dairy cream for coconut cream to make it vegan to accommodate my sister- still just as good!!
I also cut up an apple and throw it in when the veggies are cooking just for some extra depth of flavor. This recipe always gets tons of compliments from anyone I make it for!!
I make your Butternut Squash soup all the time. I’ve subbed cream cheese for cream if I don’t have any and I’ve also used goat cheese if I need a non-cow dairy version. Always delicious!
Goat cheese lover here who is excited about this iteration!