Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
A silky, gently spiced butternut squash soup simmered with ginger and coconut milk. Comforting, warming, and ready for a bowl with a swirl of coconut milk on top.
- Total
- 41 min
- Prep 10 · Cook 31
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Sweating · Blooming spices
- Savory
- Creamy
- Mild
- Stovetop
- Oven
Instructions
-
Peel the butternut squash, scoop out the seeds, and cut the flesh into 2 cm cubes. Finely chop the onion. Grate or finely mince the ginger.
~10 min
-
Warm 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the minced ginger, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, and 1/4 tsp turmeric and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
~6 min
Sweating the onion first builds sweetness, while blooming the spices in hot oil releases their fat-soluble aromas for deeper flavor.
Sweating Cook onion over medium heat until soft and translucent, not browned. If it starts coloring, lower the heat so it sweetens instead of turning bitter.
Blooming spices Add ground spices to the hot oil and stir for about a minute until fragrant. Watch closely; they burn and turn acrid in seconds if the heat is too high.
-
Add the butternut squash cubes, 250 ml vegetable stock, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp black pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the squash is completely tender when pierced with a knife, 15 to 18 minutes.
~18 min
Simmering gently with the lid on lets the squash soften evenly without the stock reducing too fast or scorching.
-
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in 150 ml coconut milk. Blend with an immersion blender until completely smooth. If using a countertop blender, blend in 2 batches, filling it no more than halfway each time.
~5 min
Blending while hot and in small batches creates a smooth emulsion and prevents pressure buildup from steam.
Blend the soup a full minute longer than you think you need; that is what turns a good squash soup silky rather than grainy.
If the soup looks thick after blending, loosen it with a splash more vegetable stock rather than water so the flavor stays rich.
-
Return the blended soup to low heat and warm through for 2 minutes, stirring so it does not catch. Taste and adjust the salt. Ladle into a bowl and serve hot.
~2 min
Reheating gently after blending warms the soup through without scorching the bottom or splitting the coconut milk.