It’s time to ditch the dutch oven. And make curried butternut squash soup in your slow cooker. A warm, comforting soup made with REAL food that I let simmer in my crockpot until the squash was tender and the whole house smelled like fall. It’s coziness in a bowl, a warm and hearty vegetarian soup for the soul. When I first started recipe testing this soup, it would take me HOURS to make it. I would start by roasting the veggies on a baking sheet in batches. Then they would simmer it all in a large pot with curry powder, vegetable broth, and all the other spices. Finally, I’d blend them up, stir in the cream, and by then, I didn’t feel like making anything else for dinner. Curried butternut squash soup has come a long way since then. Now it all gets piled into the slow cooker, and all you need to do is blend it up with an immersion blender until you’re left with a puree and drizzle it with cream. Wait, what? The taste? Did I find that oven roasting the veggies made a significant difference in flavor? Nope!
Ingredients to make curried butternut squash soup:
Butternut squash: You’ll want to start with 2-2 ¼ pounds of chopped squash. Make sure to use a sharp knife when you’re cutting the squash. Sometimes I’ll just buy prechopped vegetables or squash at the store to cut down on prep time even more. This soup, provides a big punch of dietary fiber with all the fresh ingredients we’re using, and also happens to tons of vitamin A and vitamin C!Onions: You’ll want to use one large yellow onion that you dice up. Don’t worry about chopping the veggies precisely, it all gets blended it at the end anyway!Apples: I use granny smith apples for this recipe because it gives the soup a delicious depth of flavor while adding more nutrition. You can also use a different variety if you prefer your soup to have more sweetness.Carrots: Add natural sweetness and color to the soup. Spices: This soup is heavy on spices but that’s where all the flavor is! You’ll need salt, black pepper, bay leaves, curry powder, and ground cinnamon. The curry powder will provide most of the flavor here. It contains ingredients like ground turmeric, coriander, cumin, chili powder, and ginger amongst others. Use hot curry powder for more heat or mild curry powder for less. And you can always add a small pinch of cayenne if you prefer to give the soup a good kick!Sugar: Adds a hint more sweetness. I prefer to use brown sugar for this recipe but maple syrup would also work well.Garlic: Cloves of garlic and onions are the aromatics that we use. They add flavor, aroma, and a cozy feel!Ginger: fresh ginger adds a little bit of warmth and lots of flavor to the soup. It also works well with the carrots and apples in this soup recipe.Vegetable broth: I usually have a carton of vegetable broth in the pantry so I use that but you can also use chicken stock or chicken broth here if you’d like.Heavy cream: I add the heavy cream to the soup right and the end and also like to drizzle a bit on each bowl as a garnish. You can also use coconut milk in place of heavy cream if you’d prefer to keep this recipe dairy-free and vegan-friendly!
Instructions for making curried butternut squash soup:
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Please note: the nutritional facts calculated are an estimate based on the ingredients I’ve used. If you’d like a more accurate count, please calculate them using the ingredients/brands you’ve used to prepare the recipe. The nutritional info for this butternut squash soup is based on six servings. SaveSavSaveSave
