Secret Ingredient Butternut Squash Soup (Vegan)

Butternut Squash Soup is one of those dishes that is very hit or miss. It’s either holy crap amazing or missing something vital that leads to half-full bowls… There are a lot of factors which go into this soup, and I have finally found my favorite way to prepare this soup with the addition of a secret ingredient which solved all of my texture issues.

I was inspired by Samin Norat when coming up with this recipe. She has an amazing way of describing how to layer flavors to get that elusive umami.  She has played a major role in how I cook. So if your interested and would like to explore her work, check it out here.

Ingredients & Equipment

Ingredients for Butternut Squash Soup

I intentionally took on the challenge of making this a vegan soup. It would have been quite a bit easier to just pour in a few cups of heavy cream or even whipped cream to thicken the soup. Or maybe start with a roux, but my roux demands butter, and I haven’t tried to make a bechamel yet. So I dug through the internet and found a couple of ideas, and it took 5 iterations to land on something close to what I wanted. The family was thrilled, and everyone loved the result.

• Butternut Squash: The star ingredient. Pick a good sized vegetable free of major blemishes.
• Vegetable Stock: To make any sort of stock I use Better Than Boullion. It is immensely better that the cubes and makes a real difference in the depth of flavor it delivers.
• Onion: Medium sweet onion. Diced small and we are going to carmelize it to oblivion.
• Olive Oil: My go-to for cooking vegetables in a recipe.
• Coconut Milk: This provides a lot of creaminess for the soup. Skip the lite version for the full experience.
• Allspice, Cinnamon, or Pumpkin Spice: Pick one. I use allspice since I have it and everyone likes it. Adds another level of fall flavor to this autumnal soup.
• Garlic Powder: Adds another layer of flavor while skipping the bitterness of fresh garlic.
• Paprika: Adds a bit of smokiness. Use Hungarian paprika if you like spice, otherwise use smoked paprika.
• Soy Sauce: Adds depth and salt to the soup. I add soy sauce to all of my recipes, it’s just so good.

The Secret Ingredient!

In the 4 attempts before this final super tasty version, the soup came out tasty but thin. I looked into adding all kinds of thickeners from cornstarch to arrowroot. One thing that stuck in my head was a suggestion to add instant potatoes as a thickener.

Now I was hesitant to use something so processed in this otherwise very natural meal, and there were comments that said instant potatoes can make it grainy. But then it hit me and was very obvious at the same time. Maybe use a SWEET POTATO! The flavor and texture are very similar once cooked and the color would only enhance the epic orange color this soup demands to be.

The results were spectacular. I cooked and pureed a medium sweet potato and added it to the soup 1/4 cup at a time. Each addition thickened the soup a bit, so I ended up adding the whole sweet potato. The mouthfeel was amazing and I decided it was time to share it with the world.

Soup Preparation

I am not a big fan of big fancy meal preps. Easy is better with kids in the house. So, step one is simply cut the butternut squash down the middle, longwise. Scrape out the seeds and put in the oven face down. Do the same with the sweet potato, do not remove the skin. Bake in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes on a cookie sheet. This step softens the meat of both the squash and the sweet potato. Test for doneness by poking them with a fork, if it’s easy to insert it’s done. Remove and allow to cool to a temperature you can handle.

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While the squash bakes, slice and carmelize the onion. I’ll make my own technique video eventually, but for now, I will link to something similar below. I do something very similar to the video below, but I use olive oil and soy sauce to caramelize the onions instead of butter and sugar. They come out salt and sweet which is perfect.

Once the squash is done, it’s time to blend everything. Use whatever you can to puree your baked ingredients into soup. I used my Ninja blender and pureed the the squash first, onions second, and then the sweet potato last. If you can do it all at once go for it. After that, pour everything back into a sauce pan and heat it through. Add the spices, the coconut milk, and the soy sauce. Stir to combine and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Leftover Butternut Squash Soup

This soup reheats well at 30 seconds in the microwave with stirring in between. Without stirring, the edges of the container will scorch and it will eventually spatter your microwave.

Butternut Squash Soup Pairings

This soup has multiple vegetables in the recipe, so another vegetable isn’t really my style. As with most soups, I like to serve something to dip in it for a complete meal. It’s entirely unnecessary, but this would go great with homemade pretzels or a loaf of homemade french bread.

That’s it. Serve to experience one of the most quintessential flavors of the Fall. Let me know in the comments section if this recipe worked for you or if you had to change it at all. Cheers!