This thick and creamy soup with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg is perfect for fall or, let’s be honest, anytime – and only a little over $1 per serving.

Bowl of butternut squash soup topped with roasted squash seeds and pumpkin seeds with cinnamon sticks and seeds on the table.

This is one of my favorite soups. Hmm, I need an exclamation point for that. And bold font. This is one of my favorite soups!

I first made this soup last fall and winter. To be honest, I can’t remember where I got the initial recipe. But I changed it so much over the course of several months that I feel safe calling this one my own.

This butternut squash soup is thick, not watery. If you prefer a thinner soup, you can always add more liquid. I prefer my squash soups thick, like they’re a meal.

If you’ve never had a soup with both cinnamon and onion before, you might think “That’s a weird combination” because that’s what I thought, at first. I assure you – it is not weird. It is good.

Despite the cinnamon and nutmeg, it’s not a sweet “dessert” type of soup. But the spices are essential – they add just the right amount of autumnness to the soup. Is autumnness a word? Yes?

INGREDIENTS

Exact amounts are in the recipe at the end of this post.

This recipe doesn’t require too many ingredients. I like keeping things simple around here.

butternut squash
carrots
celery
Yellow onion
vegetable broth
olive oil
cinnamon
nutmeg
optional: salt, pepper

SQUASH SIZE

In testing this recipe, all of my squashes have ranged from 2.5 to 3 pounds (gross weight), yielding anywhere from 1.9 and 2.4 pounds of cut squash. If the squash is within this range, the amounts of the other ingredients don’t have to change.

There are many ways to make butternut squash soup – but here’s how I make mine.

INSTRUCTIONS

Additional instructions are in the recipe at the end of this post.

If you’re reading this in the fall, you’re in luck: the mighty butternut squash – rich in fiber, vitamins A, C, E, and a whole bunch of minerals – is in season. A good squash will be free of cuts and soft spots, be firm, and sound hollow if you knock on it. (It’s not actually hollow. I don’t know why it sounds that way, I’m not a scientist!)

Rinse it under cold water before cutting. Cut lengthwise, you’ll want to be able to stand it up. If necessary, slice off the very bottom and/or top so it can stay level on a cutting board.

You can also cut it across the middle first to make it easier to cut down the middle.

I use the biggest knife I have for this part, which is, ironically, a meat cleaver. Whatever you use, be careful! Keep you fingers away from the blade and use both hands to slowly push down the knife.

Two side-by-side shots of a cleaver cutting a butternut squash on a cutting board.

The inside should be bright orange and the cavity filled with pulp and seeds. Scoop this out but don’t throw away the seeds! (Hint: my next recipe on this blog will use the seeds.)

Split butternut squash on a cutting board.

Here’s a quick version of my butternut squash seeds recipe: scoop out the pulp and seeds, separate the seeds, rinse, and dry. Roast them in the oven with oil and spices and, voila, free snack!

Back to the soup.

REMOVING THE SKIN

To peel or to cut?

I’ve always used a knife to cut squash skin. The upside is that it seems faster than using a peeler. The downside is that you may lose more flesh this way, resulting in less useable squash.

If you’re interested in peeling, check out these instructions for how to peel a butternut squash.

I use my normal cutting knife for removing the skin, not the meat cleaver. It can be tricky to do this around the curvy parts of the squash, but just do your best and, again, please do not slice off your fingers.

Knife slicing into the side of a butternut squash on a cutting board.

Cut the squash into chunks – the exact size doesn’t matter, as later we’re going to stick this all in a blender! Toss the chunks with a tablespoon of olive oil and lay them on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Roast at 400ºF for 25 minutes.

Two side-by-side photos of roasted butternut squash chunks on a baking try – the left is before roasting and the right is after roasting.

While the squash is in the oven, chop up the onion, carrots, and celery.

Three bowls of chopped onion, carrot, and celery on a table.

Throw that into a pot along with olive oil, butter, and spices.

Chopped onion, carrot, and celery covered in spices at the bottom of a deep pot.

Heat up the vegetable broth. Once the squash chunks are roasted, add the broth along with the squash to the pot so everything is combined. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Vegetables, squash, and broth all together in deep pot.

After 10 minutes, use a soup ladle to carefully transfer it all to a blender. Blend for about three minutes.

Two side-by-side photos of food in a blender – the left is the ingredients before blending and the right is after blending.

And your soup is done!

HOW TO ENJOY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

You could absolutely eat this soup, as is, straight from the blender. I mean, don’t eat it out of the blender. That would be weird.

However, there are a few ways you could garnish it. Please know there is a good chance that the following photos exist because I wasn’t satisfied with each photoshoot so I did three.

ENJOY IT PLAIN

This is a perfectly wonderful way to enjoy this butternut squash soup.

Bowl of butternut squash soup without any toppings, surrounded by two cinnamon sticks and a few roasted butternut squash seeds.

SPRINKLE WITH CINNAMON

Or nutmeg. Or both. Toss a few lightly roasted seeds on there, too.

Bowl of butternut squash soup topped with cinnamon and a few squash seeds, with cinnamon sticks in the background.

TOP WITH ROASTED SEEDS

And maybe some pumpkin seeds, too!

Full disclosure: I wanted some green color on the soup but didn’t want to add parsley or herbs. I saw these green pumpkin seeds in the store, and the rest is food blog history.

I love the soup this way, as both seeds are totally different tastes and textures.

Bowl of butternut squash soup topped with roasted butternut squash seeds, green pumpkin seeds, with cinnamon sticks and a spoon on the table.

SERVING SIZE

The optimal serving size varies for each individual. For me, one cup of soup never feels like enough, unless it’s part of a larger meal. Two cups sometimes seems like too much – and also exceeds the limit of my glass storage jars.

I prefer to use a serving size of 12 oz. for soup. This is a cup and a half, which I think is enough to have a few other items on your plate but not leave you dissatisfied.

This recipe makes 5 servings of 12 oz. each.

Five glass jars in a row on a table that are filled with butternut squash soup.

If you prefer an 8 oz. serving, this recipe should yield about 7.5 servings.

Note that the amount of ingredients in this recipe filled my blender – while blending, the soup went up to the top line (9 cups). If you use more ingredients than what I have listed, I recommend blending the soup in batches so your blender doesn’t overflow.

STORAGE

One of the nice things about this soup is that you can make a whole batch, eat a bowl, and store the rest. I truly love storing food for later. It’s nice to do all the work at once and then have easy meals to enjoy for days and even weeks.

I use glass jars for soup storage (and yes, I have lids!). These are perfect for the freezer and usually inexpensive. I believe I got mine at Bed Bath & Beyond for about $1 each.

You can store the soup in one big container in the fridge if you think it will be consumed within a couple of days. Being a single gal myself, I usually like to freeze my extra servings. I recommend taking it out of the freezer a couple of hours before eating, or transferring the jar to the fridge the night before.

REHEATING

If you need to thaw the soup quickly, fill a pot with warm water and stand the opened jar in the pot. Do not heat the glass jar on the stove! Just let it sit.

You can also run warm water over the outside of the jar to thaw the frozen soup. Once the soup can come out of the jar, heat it up in a pot over low heat, breaking it up with a fork if necessary.

COST BREAKDOWN

This is an inexpensive soup! It will mostly depend on the price of your butternut squash. As always, prices will vary depending on where you live, where you shop, time of year, and other factors. My breakdown is just to give you an idea.

Here’s what this butternut squash soup could cost:

butternut squash: $3.97
carrots: $0.36
celery: $0.48
yellow onion: $0.20
vegetable broth: $0.48
olive oil: $0.22
cinnamon: $0.04
nutmeg: $0.11
salt & pepper: $0.02

Total cost: $6.03

Cost per 12 oz. serving: $1.21

I should note that my butternut squash cost $1.29 a pound, weighed about 3 pounds, and yielded 2 lbs., 4 oz. of peeled squash.

The price of vegetable broth can vary:

most expensive: boxed broth
average: broth paste or bouillon
cheapest: make your own

I did not make my own broth for this recipe but instead used a bouillon paste that cost $5.99 for 38 servings, or $0.16 per teaspoon (I used 3 teaspoons). I could only find small jars of this paste; a larger jar would have been slightly cheaper per serving.

The spices, onion, carrots, and celery are typically the cheapest things about this recipe.

Considering it makes several servings of soup, it winds up not being too expensive.

Let me know if you made this soup in the comments! And enjoy autumn’s autumnness while you can.

Butternut Squash Soup

This thick and creamy soup with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg is perfect for fall or, let's be honest, anytime – and it's only a little over $1 per serving.

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword butternut squash soup, healthy creamy soup

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 40

Total Time 1

Servings servings (12 oz.)

Calories 183kcal

Author Ari

Cost $6.03

Equipment

blender
large pot

Ingredients

36 ounces butternut squash 1 peeled & cubed squash; exact amount can vary
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces carrots ~ 1.5 cups chopped
6 ounces celery ~1.5 cups chopped
4 ounces yellow onion ~ 1 cup chopped
1 tablespoon butter or vegan alternative
4 cups vegetable broth
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Rinse and carefully remove the skin from a 2.5 to 3-lb. butternut squash. Scoop out the pulp and seeds. (Optional: roast the seeds for a soup garnish or snack.)
Cut the squash into chunks and toss with 1 TBSP of olive oil.
Place squash chunks on parchment-lined baking sheet, as spread out as possible. Roast at 400ºF for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
While the squash is roasting, chop carrots, celery, and onion.
In a large pot, heat 1 TBSP olive oil and 1 TBSP butter (or vegan alternative). Add chopped carrots, celery, and onion. Cook on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes or until tender.
When the squash is done, add it to the pot of vegetables.
Add 4 cups of vegetable broth, cinnamon, nutmeg, and optional salt and pepper to the pot. Let this all simmer for about 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, let it cool for a few minutes before transferring it with a soup ladle to a blender. Blend on low to medium for about 3 minutes. Use less time if you want a chunkier soup.
Pour the blended soup from the blender into bowls or storage containers. If freezing, let the soup cool before placing a lid on the jar.

Notes

Nutrition data is provided as a courtesy, automatically generated, and may vary depending on the ingredients you use in your own recipe.
A butternut squash weighing anywhere from 2.5 to 3 pounds would work with the amounts in this recipe.
Don’t worry too much about the exact amounts of the squash, carrots, celery, and onion. Feel free to experiment with more or less of any of the ingredients.

Nutrition

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