This kosher recipe for Savory Butternut Squash Soup is a comfort food that has so much flavor and texture that no one will ever believe that it's healthy! It is sweet and velvety and is a great starter for any Shabbat, Yom Tov, or Thanksgiving meal. This recipe is kosher for Passover, gluten free, dairy free, pareve, vegan, and nut free.
There is nothing like starting a Shabbat or Passover meal with a steaming hot bowl of soup. Traditionally, soup recipes like our Easy Shabbat Chicken Soup are served. We are never satisfied with just one option for our meals so we like to switch things up with soups like our Hearty Mushroom Barley Soup. This recipe for Butternut Squash Soup (or Roasted Pumpkin Soup as my mother likes to call it) is a nice change of pace from those soups and the natural sweetness of the roasted butternut squash and the onions taste great with challah or matzo.
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Ingredients Used in this Recipe
This recipe uses ingredients that you should already have in your Pesach kitchen arsenal. The one exception to this is the butternut squash. Unless you cook with squash often, you probably don't have one of these laying around.
Most conventional grocery stores (even the small ones) have butternut squash so it shouldn't be hard to find. This recipe does not use any added sugar and has a more savory flavor than other butternut squash soups. Here's what you need to make this recipe:
- Butternut squash - you will need to cook this, don't try to eat it raw.
- Onion - for sweetness and texture.
- Oil - to saute the onions.
- Garlic - for flavor, adds a little bit of a kick.
- Ginger - grated fresh ginger gives this soup an amazing flavor and aroma.
- Salt and black pepper - to taste.
- Chicken stock - there are lots of good pareve kosher for Passover chicken soup bases to use. Adds tons of flavor.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make this Easy Savory Butternut Squash Soup Recipe from scratch
Step 1 - Roast the squash and onions
Cut the hard shell with a knife or pierce it with a fork a few times and roast it whole in a baking pan or on a baking sheet pan. The roasting turns the butternut squash from an inedible decoration into a delicious soft vegetable perfect for soup. Our recipe for Easy Sweet Potato Soup uses a similar concept. Let the butternut cool for at least an hour or you will burn yourself when you cut it open.
Cook the onions and garlic cloves in extra virgin olive oil over medium heat until they are translucent. Cook them right in your soup pot. You are not looking for fully caramelized, just clear and light brown.
Step 2 - Combine the ingredients and heat
Remove the seeds from the butternut and scoop the insides out and add them to the pot with the onions.
Add the grated ginger, salt and black pepper.
Add the water and soup mix and heat the pot over medium to high heat until it is just starting to boil. Turn off the heat.
Step 3 - Blend
Now it is time to blend the ingredients together. The richness of the squash when blended is what gives this soup its velvety texture. We like to use an immersion blender for soups like this.
If you don't have an immersion blender (or if you don't have a dedicated Passover immersion blender) then you can also use a food processor, Vitamix, or blender but it will take longer.
Serve hot or chill and reheat later. Fresh ground black pepper or a dash of cayenne pepper are optional but can really make this soup sing.
Top recipe tips
Roasted butternut squash retains heat like hot ember from a fireplace so you really do need to let it cool before cutting into it at the end of Step 1. You can roast it and then refrigerate it until the next morning to be sure it is cool.
Don't try to make the butternut squash peeled because it is a pain! Heat and scoop instead.
Recipe Substitutions
- Beef soup powder or Consomme instead of chicken soup powder.
- Chicken broth or Vegetable Broth instead of the soup powder and water. If you are doing this, use the broth instead of the water and soup powder from the recipe. The fully cooked soup has all of the flavor and volume of these two ingredients.
- Make it dairy. A lot of recipes use heavy cream and this one omits it to keep the recipe pareve. If you are not serving this soup recipe with a meat meal then substitute one cup heavy cream and one cup of milk for 2 cups of water.
Recipe FAQ
Ginger, coriander, cumin, garlic, and fresh ground black pepper are some of our favorites.
The ingredients in this recipe provide enough natural sweetness on their own. If you added sugar or honey then the soup may be too sweet.
Roasted butternut squash and onions has tons of flavor but you can increase the amount of ginger and black pepper by ¼ teaspoon to get more flavor. You can also use a squirt of sriracha sauce to give the soup a spicy flavor.
Recipe Variations
- Savory Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon - Try crumbling up a teaspoon of ground beef fry or Kosher Bacon on top of your bowl of soup.
- Butternut Soup with Toppings - Don't throw away the seeds from the roasted butternut squash; toast them and sprinkle over the top of the soup.
- Butternut Squash Ginger and Carrot Soup - add 1 cup of chopped carrots in Step 2 of the recipe.
Special Equipment Used
- 4 qt stock pot or soup pot
- Immersion blender or large blender. If you don't have one of these, you can transfer small amounts of the cooked ingredients to a blender for Step 3 of the recipe. Blend them and then pour them into a separate pot. Once completely blended and transferred, mix well. Reblend any chunks that are leftover.
Storage suggestions
Butternut squash soup can be stored easily:
- Let it cool and cover with plastic wrap or transfer to an airtight container. Stores well in the refrigerator for 7 days.
- Freeze for up to 6 months. For this option, we like to pour the soup into airtight plastic bags as they stack well in the freezer.
Health Benefits of butternut squash
According to a WebMD post about butternut squash, butternut squash has tons of health benefits including high amounts of:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Magnesium
- Potassium
- Calcium
All this and Butternut Squash Soup is low in calories
📖 Recipe
Savory Butternut Squash Soup
Equipment
- large pot or stock pot
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ inch fresh ginger grated
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 10 cups water
- 2 tablespoon pareve chicken or beef soup base
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Pierce the butternut squash with a fork or knife a few times, place into a baking pan and roast for 40-50 minutes or until fork tender.
- Remove the squash from the oven and let cool for 1 hour.
- In the soup pot or stock pit, saute the onion in the oil until translucent and light brown.
- Scoop out the butternut squash and add it to the stock pot along with the fresh ginger, salt, black pepper, water, and soup mix. Heat until just boiling and then remove from heat.
- Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth.
