Butternut squash soup is a delicious, vegetarian- and vegan-friendly soup, perfect for warming up in the fall. Butternut squash soup is a good source of fibre and vitamin A (beta carotene) and tastes especially good in mid- to late fall when the butternut squash is in season.

Butternut squash soup is rich in flavour and can be enjoyed hot or cold.

This butternut squash soup recipe uses spices used in Indian cuisine such as coriander, cumin, and curry powder. This one also uses a few dashes of pepper sauce, one of my favourite spices, so it carries quite a bit of a kick because of the pepper sauce, as well as the curry powder. If you are sensitive to spices, you may want to go easy on the curry powder and omit the pepper sauce altogether.

Ingredients

1 tbsp. virgin coconut oil, or any cooking oil
1/2 onion
1/2 butternut squash, cubed
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3 dashes of pepper sauce (optional)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp. minced ginger
1 tsp. each of cumin, coriander, and curry powder
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1 tsp. molasses
Vegetable broth, to cover

Preparation

Peel the butternut squash and cube it with a chef’s knife or santoku knife. Discard the seeds.

In a large pot, sauté the onion in oil until soft. Add squash and sauté on medium heat until soft.

Add spices and mix. Drizzle on molasses.

Add broth to cover. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a gentle boil then simmer for 20 minutes or longer.

Purée in a blender.

Vegetable broth

To make vegetable broth, I like to keep the discarded pulp from juicing. I boil it with water for approximately 15 minutes and strain it.