Bright, healthy and the best roasted butternut squash soup with apple and cream.
This easy butternut squash soup with deep beautiful flavors will be your new fall soup favorite!
Watch the video how-to and get the recipe with process shots further below.
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Ingredients
For this recipe, you will need a handful of ingredients.
These are some of the main ingredients that add all the flavors to your autumn squash soup recipe.
Butternut squash
The butternut squash is roasted in this recipe because roasting releases the natural sugars in your winter squash.
That means your butternut squash is kind of caramelizing a bit and that way you will get a whole lot of natural flavors into your roasted squash soup.
You can use large or small butternut squash, it doesn't matter because the squash is cut into cubes to roast in the oven later.
Apple
Yep, I did it. I added an apple to this soup.
Why? Because I have done it before in my mulligatawny soup and I love the combination of roasted butternut squash apple soup.
You are going to love the addition of apple in this soup!
You can use a granny smith because this green apple will add more sour flavors to your soup, which in turn will balance the natural sweetness of your roasted butternut squash.
Ginger and Garlic
Ginger and Garlic go hand in hand.
The ginger adds a warm fall-like touch to your soup and the garlic mellows the ginger while bridging the taste.
Both are anti-inflammatory and boost the health of your immune system.
Seasoning
The seasoning is easy and compliments the roasted butternut squash, apple, and ginger-garlic flavors.
The seasoning includes:
- Cumin
- Coriander Seed
- Paprika
- Black Pepper
- Salt
Other ingredients
I also add sliced onion, stock, olive oil and cream to the soup.
You can use a regular white onion or a red/purple onion in this recipe, the choice is up to you.
For the stock, I use vegetable stock, such as concentrated stock from Knorr mixed with water, or a bouillon cube mixed in water or homemade vegetable broth or commercial broth.
You can use extra virgin olive oil in this recipe (yes you can heat up extra virgin olive oil).
You can choose to add regular liquid cream, fresh cream, heavy cream or half and half.
How to make it?
To prepare this roasted butternut soup recipe with apple is easy.
Just follow the steps below and watch my video, located in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Detailed ingredients and instructions can be found in the printable recipe card further at the bottom too.
Step 1
To prepare your butternut squash, peel and cut your squash into same-sized cubes.
Place the squash cubes into a mixing bowl with olive oil, salt, and black pepper.
Mix everything well so that your butternut squash pieces are well coated with the oil.
Spread your squash out over a baking sheet and roast the squash in the oven until cooked through.
Step 2
Heat up a pot with the olive oil and onion and cook the onion soft.
Add the ginger, garlic, roasted squash and apple and combine.
Add the seasoning, the cumin, coriander seed powder, paprika, salt, and black pepper.
Pour in the stock, mix everything and cover and cook.
Step 3
Cook your winter squash soup until your ingredients are soft.
Blend your soup smooth with an immersion blender.
Enrich the soup with cream and mix well over the stove.
Your soup is ready when it's cooked and it starts to bubble up.
Serve hot with garnish.
Garnish
You can garnish your apple butternut squash soup with a dollop of sour cream or fresh cream.
I like the thicker cream varieties because they thicken the soup nicely.
BUT when I try to control my weight and calorie intake, I tend to just simply add some fresh herbs or spices to top my butternut squash soup.
Here are some herb butternut squash soup toppings:
- Parsley - that's a classic choice of herb to garnish your soup
- Cilantro - if you enjoy cilantro. Works great with the spices used in the soup
- Chives - to add a sharp touch to your soup
- Garden Cress - Those are young delicate sprouts, similar to chives.
- Other Sprouts - such as radish sprouts, pea sprouts. Those add some nutrition to your food too.
You can also garnish your soup with the following ingredients:
- Paprika or Cayenne powder - that's what I used in the pictures
- Zaatar seasoning - amazing Mediterranean seasoning
- Pumpkin Seed Oil or Olive Oil - The first one adds a lot of flavors
- Balsamic Vinegar - a few drops can make it all special
Serving
You can serve this soup as a starter or as a stand-alone soup.
I tend to enjoy it for dinner as the main course dish with bread and I love roasted butternut squash with garlic butter bread.
I think flatbreads such as Italian focaccia, middle eastern zaatar manoushe or Indian nan or chapati are great with this soup too.
Freeze
Yes, you can freeze this butternut squash soup!
Here is how I do it.
I prepare and cook my soup as per the recipe further below.
Then I make batches and keep the soup in square Tupperware containers.
The containers are then kept in the freezer so that the soup freezes.
I usually freeze a batch for 2 servings or 1 serving, but you can also freeze a larger batch in one big container if you need to feed your family on a busy night.
To thaw the soup, simply place the frozen soup into a pot on the fire.
The soup will melt gradually over medium heat on the stove and turn into a creamy liquid soup once again.
Then just heat up the soup enough so that you can serve it hot.
Vegan option
The soup recipe is vegetarian because it contains cream, which is added at the end of the soup making process.
However, you can turn this roasted butternut squash into a vegan meal by switching or leaving out the cream in the recipe.
You can substitute the cream with coconut cream or thick coconut milk
I prefer the coconut cream because it adds to the texture and coconut works great in this soup due to the ginger garlic flavors and the cumin and coriander powder.
More fall soups
- Ginger Coconut Detox Lentil
- Spicy Pumpkin Soup
- Curry Coconut Carrot Soup with Ginger by gingerwithspice.com
📖 Recipe
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Apple
Ingredients
To roast Butternut Squash
- 2 pounds Butternut Squash
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- pinch Black Pepper
For the Soup
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 Onion sliced
- 1 inch Ginger chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic chopped
- 1 Apple cut into small pieces
- 1 Teaspoon Cumin ground
- 1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds ground
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper ground
- 1 Teaspoon Paprika powder
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 5 cups Water mixed with concentrated Stock or broth
- ⅓ cup Cream liquid cream or sour cream
Instructions
- Peel your butternut squash. Cut the squash into same-sized cubes.
- Place the butternut squash into a mixing bowl and add olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Mix so that the squash is covered in oil.
- Line an oven tray with a baking sheet and arrange squash cubes on it so that they are spread out.
- Roast the butternut squash in the oven for about 20 minutes or until cooked through at 350° Fahrenheit/ 180° Celsius.
- Heat up a pot with the olive oil and sautee your sliced onion. Cook until soft on medium heat.
- Add in your chopped ginger and garlic and your roasted butternut squash cubes and apple pieces. Combine everything in a lower heat setting.
- Season with the spices, the cumin, coriander seed powder, paprika, black pepper and salt and mix over a lower heat setting.
- Pour in your stock or broth and mix.
- Cover and cook over medium heat until all your ingredients look soft. That can take about 10 minutes.
- With a hand blender, blend your soup smooth. Heat up your soup over a lower heat setting.
- Pour in your cream and mix. Cook 2 more minutes and you are done.
- Serve hot with a garnish of your choice (see garnish suggestions in the post)
I have made this soup at least a dozen times and I absolutely LOVE IT. The best butternut squash soup I've ever made. I probably use a bit more ginger than is called for just because of how much I love the taste, but would not change anything about it. It's also given me an excuse to improve my immersion blencing skills 😛
Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
I also add coconut milk to make creamy! For my sweet potato recipe. Similar to this recipe!
This is a great soup! I've never tried butternut soup before! Made mostly as directed, used vegetable stock & added some croutons and parsley on top! Kids are it without much complaint. Hubby really loved it. We eat primarily whole foods plant based. Would make again! Thanks!
Thanks for your feedback and serving ideas Lex. Glad you guys loved it.
I tried this soup and it was so delicious that I not only ate it as soup but I added it to many other dishes to zip up the flavor.
Added it to pasta and dipped sandwiches into it, everything I tried it with tasted better.
My husband Paul loves to dip his bread into the soup. He said he will try that with the pasta. 😀
Absolutely delicious! I did use a whole bulb of garlic, only because we grow our own garlic and love it. I tossed the squash with cinnamon before roasting and omitted the cream. Otherwise I followed the recipe. Now I know what my remaining Butternut squash will be used for. Thank you for sharing your recipe! 🙂
Oh wow I never thought of growing my own garlic for some crazy reason. Thanks for sharing how you did your butternut squash soup, I bet others will get a good idea of the various possibilities. 🙂
Hi Traci,
My taste taste was amazing. I had around 4 butternuts to use before they went bad. I used a big red sweet pepper in place of the onion. One of my family cannot tolerate onion but, it still tastes wonderful. Yours is my favorite butternut soup recipe. Next I want to try making something with the noodles!😊 thank you for posting. Lots of cudos here!
Glad you loved it Charity! 🙂
Made today, a smaller batch. Only changes were using candied ginger, no cumin (personal preference), adding curry powder and cinnamon. It’s fantastic!
Thanks for sharing Ruth 🙂
Absolutely delicious! I didn’t even measure anything, since i love all the spices, best butternut soup❤️❤️❤️ this will be my go to recipe, thank you very much😍
I made this today. Left out the Apple. Added broth onion garlic thyme. It’s delicious. I will serve with some hot sauce.
Great idea with the hot sauce. I tried it with a mango habanero hot sauce, it was amazing!
I made this soup as written and it is absolutely delicious! A real winner - I’ve made other recipes for squash soup but this will be my go to from now on.
That's lovely! Thanks so much for sharing Sue, you made my day 🙂
Loved it! Can’t wait to make it again.
That's great, glad you enjoy the soup. 🙂
I put it in a blender. It turned out like velvet richness on your palate. The blend of spices combined with the apple turned this squash soup into a soup like no other.
Thanks for your lovely feedback Jackie 🙂
Wasn't a fan of this one. Bland and stringy. I then tried to save it but was unable to.
I'm sorry that the soup didn't turn out as expected. I'm not sure why yours would turn out stringy. I recommend using a good and powerful blender. Also, quantities of the spices should be followed exactly as per recipe so that it doesn't turn out bland and boring.
A few other topping suggestions, sprinkled lightly:
Pomegranate Arils
Dried cranberries
Walnuts or Pecans, roasted or candied
Chives
A red garnish mixed with green on a swirl of cream is nice for Christmas.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Love all your ideas Heidi, I will try the dried cranberries next. Happy Holidays!
Prep time was nowhere near 15 minutes. More like 40 minutes. Absolutely delicious though.
Here is how I break down the prepping time: I take 10 mins cutting the squash, placing them on parchment paper, taking the roasted squash from the paper, and another 5 mins to keep all the other ingredients ready. The rest is cooking and roasting time in my book. Maybe that's helpful to someone.
Served it for Thanksgiving dinner and guests loved it!
Thanks for leaving a feedback, I appreciate it. 🙂
Not bad!
absolutely delicious!
awesome! glad you liked it 🙂
Made this tonight and did not enjoy the cumin spice with the rest of the flavors 👎🏼
I'm sorry to read that you didn't enjoy the flavors.
This soup was so delicious. I didn't use any onion because my son can't eat it. The soup held up and had delicious flavor. In addition, I did peel the apples prior to cutting and cooking. Yum! Thank you for the recipe!
That's wonderful! Thanks for sharing. Others will find it useful to know that the soup can be made without onion too.
I loved the flavors in the soup, but mine was thinner then I like, so will omit a cup of broth next time! Thanks for posting your recipe!
Thanks for your feedback Theresa
Yummy! I love the flavors! I think I used a bit too much broth so it was thinner than I would have liked. I added a bit of canned pumpkin at the last minute. Worked perfectly!
thanks for your feedback Christa 🙂
Awesome, glad you loved it 🙂
This soup is so good! I omitted the ginger because I didn’t have any on hand and it’s still really tasty. I’ll be keeping this one. 💜
Added some goat cheese and little toasties to mine!
That sounds delicious too! 🙂
This is the perfect butternut squash soup! Thank you! So much yum.
Nice! Glad you loved the soup
Delicious great flavors - definitely a keeper. I didn’t have coriander so I used curry powder
Thanks for sharing your recipe version Suzanne.
Not bad but the cumin overpowers everything. I'd make again without cumin and add maple syrup and nutmeg.
thanks for your feedback Ritchie. We appreciate it.
Sooooooo good and easy to make..didn’t have coriander, so I added curry powder instead
Lovely idea! Thank you for sharing it with us. 🙂
Best squash soup ever! I was hesitating making it because I'm not a fan of squash, but I do love soup. This was so yummy and comforting. Will make again.
That's great! I know squash is not everyones business but it's a success in my book if you loved it.
I made the soup and the flavors were really yummy.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi! I'm about to make this tomorrow but I noticed the sodium content!!! haha!! Is this a mistake??! That is so much sodium!!
Hi Julie, The sodium is high because the recipe card system uses and calculates the sodium quantity in store-bought broth. Now, if you would use homemade broth, you wouldn't have such a crazy high sodium quantity. The nutrition facts are rarely that accurate because it always depends on what ingredients you use. The fresher and the more homemade, the better. You can skip the broth altogether and use water instead but the flavors won't be that intense.
Used the squash seeds for toppers, I roasted them of course and substituted cream with coconut milk! Delicious
Great idea with the seeds and the coconut milk! Thanks for sharing Sherrie
I made this soup for my husband. He said it was ok. I love it. I don't like butter nut squash unless it is cooked fresh and has some texture to it. But this soup was amazing. A little spice and a suttle sweetness. Excellent I will make again.
This is the recipe I've been looking for. Can I use frozen pre chopped squash? What kind of apple would you recommend?
Yes, you can use pre-chopped frozen squash too. I like to use an apple that cooks through fast and perhaps a tart variety. You can try out different varieties to see which one you prefer the most. It's like picking a good wine, everyone has a favorite. 🙂
This was pretty time consuming to make & I did not like the cumin in the recipe. It fought the other flavors. I Added some nutmeg and Maple syrup. I would make again without the cumin.
Thanks for sharing your experience. We appreciate it 🙂
This recipe was superb! Thank you so much! Added a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar plus a dollop of Greek yogurt as I served the soup. Will make it again and again.
Glad you enjoyed it Joan. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Forgot to take a good picture. It was so good I just started eating it.🤣
*I added a tbsp of sour cream for this bowl.
Mission accomplished 😀
Delicious! I made this tonight & served with a fresh salad & 7-grain bread. Perfect! This is now on my autumn meal rotation.
Thanks for your feedback Judy 🙂
Was good, didnt the need cream
I am making a large quantity for a neighborhood gathering and will be taking it in a small crockpot. Can I assume that if I want to x4 the recipe that all of the ingredient should be x4? I don’t want the seasonings to be overpowering. This is my first time to make this recipe. Thank you!
Theoretically yes, however, to be on the save side, I recommend adding a smaller quantity of seasoning. You can then taste test and add more if need be. Especialy if you havn't made the soup yet in the recommended quantity as per recipe. You can always add more spices but not remove them. Cooking larger quantities can be tricky, and the larger the quantity the more difficult it gets to add the correct quantity of seasoning spices. I hope this helps.
It was good and easy to make
This was delicious!! I used oregano instead of coriander because I couldn’t find it and added a dash of cinnamon. Will definitely make again!
Thanks Helene for sharing. I am dying to prepare this soup.
All your recipes are just amazing.
I'm glad to read that you have been enjoying our recipes. Thanks for taking the time to comment, I appreciate it, Mary. 🙂
Perfect 🍂
I added some carrots and substituted the water with chicken stock. Served it with toasted herb flat bread on day one and on day two I made apple, spinach, cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Followed this recipe to a T and ended up with a bowl of brown slop. Imagine my embarrassment when my husband comes home from work excited for his soup and I have to give him this!!
Wow! That's definitely not what it's suppose to look like. What did the butternut squash look like before and after roasting? Maybe it's the pumpkin. You can see mine on the pictures and in the video, it doesn't change into a brown slop. I hope it will look better next time!
Made it, didn't add cream just a dollop of Greek yogurt and a pinch of thyme. I think it would be really good with a hit of mint as well.
That's interesting. Yeah I bet it would be great with some mint too and perhaps some chili pepper flakes. It would be more like my Turkish lentil soup. Thanks for sharing!
Great recipe. My guests couldn't stop raving about it. Served it with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle of chives. Restaurant quality!
Thanks for sharing your feedback Brenda! 🙂
Absolutely fab. The family ate the whole batch! Beautiful flavours
Love! I did add 1 shredded carrot and one diced celery at the time of sauteèing the onion, for more flavor. I also added about 10 oz. Pumpkin puree when about to blend. Also added a pinch of nutmeg! It was more flavorful, delicious! I topped with cilantro, and toasted pepitas i toasted in a small skillet with salt, pepper, cumin, and corriander.
thanks for sharing your flavor ideas 🙂
I roasted squash for 25min. I used 2 small squash. I used 1&1/4 tsp of ground ginger instead of fresh. I only used 1/4 cup of half and half cream. Tastes wonderful!
Really good. Didn’t have coriander, used curry instead of cumin. Roasted garlic in the oven with the squash.
Thanks for sharing, glad to read that you enjoyed the soup.
I made this recipe using full vegetable broth and subbed coconut milk for the cream. Paired with fresh baked olive bread. DELICIOUS!
Hi Traci, thanks for leaving your feedback. I'm going to make it next with baked olive bread. Sounds amazing!
This soup is delicious! The cutting and roasting of the squash takes time so start that ahead. The flavors of all the spices are what really puts the finishing touch on this soup.