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
Creamy, flavorful butternut squash soup that’s easy to make and perfect for a cozy fall meal.
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.
- Note: 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.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (6 servings)
- Calories: 217
- Fat: 11 g
- Saturated fat: 7 g
- Carbohydrates: 31 g
- Sugar: 11 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Sodium: 1192 mg
- Cholesterol: 34 mg
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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I normally really enjoy recipes from Jennifer, and even bought her cookbook because I felt guilty having made so many of her recipes, repeatedly with great success. This time for this recipe, I used an orange bell pepper since I didn’t have a red one. I used coconut creamer instead of heavy cream since that’s what I had on hand. The entire batch of soup had to be throw out. It was awful. I thought I made this before and thought it came out wonderfully, but I can’t be sure. I think it was so good because I used chicken bone broth instead of water. Allow me to further investigate and update my review. For now, I can’t recommend this one, but Jenn has the most wonderful recipes. I will update on those separately.
In her defense you did tweak it a lot that technically it’s not her recipe anymore.
I usually love recipes from this blog, definitely a go-to site, but this one fell flat for me. It was bland. I had to add coconut and curry to salvage it, but then it was good so I guess that as a base for the flavors you prefer it works well.
Just made this today to warm and serve on Thanksgiving – so delish! Have to keep my husband out of it for 2 days. Soon to be a family fav 😋
How many days will this soup keep covered in a Tupperware in the fridge? Thanks!
Hi Stephanie, this should keep well for 2 – 3 days in the fridge. 🙂
Really such a delicious soup. I normally don’t love butternut soup, but just felt like it tonight and I loved it.
It was one of the few recipes that really took as long as it said. I couldn’t believe that I could make such a yum soup, from start to finish, in less than an hour.
I didn’t have peppers and I didn’t add cream. But it was still delicious.
Thank you for sharing this recipe Jenn
Delicious! The only change I made was to add a tablespoon of white pepper to add a little kick. Everyone loved it!
Followed the recipe directions but I added 1/2 tsp ground white pepper before serving. I felt it needed a little something after making it and the pepper gave it more depth. I pureed the soup in the Vitamix instead of using my immersion blender. I like the silky texture that blending provides. Even after adding the cream, the soup was still very bright orange!
Hi Jenn
This looks fabulous and will be trying it out this weekend. Instead of a blender can I use my food processor to puree?
Sure, Lisa – just don’t add too much to the food processor at once or it will leak out. Enjoy!
We loved this! And it was easy to make, even though I cut up the squash myself. The one question I have is that the red pepper skin came off and rolled up so the soup was not as smooth as I would have liked. I also sometimes have this happen with red peppers in other recipes. Do you know what causes this and how I can avoid it? Thanks! Making your potatoes au gratin tonight!
Hi Tom, glad to hear this was a hit! If those little bits of bell pepper are bothersome, you could strain the soup to catch those pieces of skin. Also, if you don’t mind the extra step, believe it or not, you can peel bell peppers.
Hello Jenn,
Why would this recipe be so high in Sodium? I don’t get it. Is there that much Sodium in a TBSP Of salt?
Hi Tissa, a tablespoon of sodium has 6,976 mg of sodium, so that’s where the great majority of the sodium comes from. Feel free to cut the salt back and add more to taste if necessary. Hope that clarifies!
Finally made this soup, and it was fantastic, Jenn. Added more cream to make it creamier. Excellent! Kudos again!