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Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup with Peanut Butter

This simple Butternut Squash Soup recipe is warming and savoury. It has a thick, velvety texture and is brilliant yellowy-orange colour which is guaranteed to cheer you up on a cold winter day! The squash is cooked slowly to bring out its natural sweetness. This is then balanced by the addition of warming chilli flakes and peanut butter which adds a creamy, nutty richness of flavour.

It is a really healthy and nutritious soup. Butternut Squash is a rich source of vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamin A and potassium. It also contains a lot of fibre which makes it a filling and satisfying meal without being high in calories.

This recipe is vegan. However, whether you are vegan or not, I think this is a great soup. I love it when days are getting colder and you want something sustaining, warming and nutritious. It is great if you are looking to introduce non-vegans to vegan food. Serve them this soup and see if they appreciate just how tasty plant-based food can be!

What you need to know about this recipe

If you haven’t got butternut squash, you can make this soup with other kinds of flavoursome squash or culinary pumpkins. Similarly, you can substitute other kinds of nut butter – such as almond butter or hazelnut butter – for the peanut butter.
It is really important to cook the squash and the onions very slowly so that they caramelise (step 3). This will make a big difference to the flavour of your soup.
If you don’t like chilli, or are making the soup for younger children, you can leave it out. The soup will still taste good.
This soup freezes very well so you can make a batch and keep it in the freezer for up to six months for when you need a quick lunch or supper. It is is also good as an addition to autumn and winter packed lunches.
This recipe is vegan. However, if you are not vegan you can use butter instead of vegetable oil (step 1) and dairy cream for coconut cream (step 8).

Other easy vegetarian soup recipes

I have lots of easy, vegetarian soup recipes. If you like this Butternut Squash Soup, you might like some of the others. All my soups are vegetarian and all can be made vegan by substituting animal fats, such as butter, for vegetable fats. Some of them are pretty simple such as Tomato Soup, Fennel Soup, Jerusalem Artichoke Soup or Sweetcorn Chowder and showcase a single vegetable. Others combine vegetables which have complimentary flavours such as Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup, Moroccan Spiced Sweet Potato Soup, Celeriac and Apple Soup, Mushroom and Chestnut Soup, Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup or Leek and Potato Soup. A few have more unusual combinations of flavours such as Beetroot and Coconut Soup. Nettle Soup uses foraged ingredients. I also have a few chilled soup recipes, which are fantastic cold in the summer, but can also be served warm such as Asparagus and Pea.

Other butternut squash and pumpkin recipes

If you like the earthy sweetness of butternut squash and pumpkin, you might like some of my other recipes.

Butternut Squash Hummus is a twist on traditional hummus which has the added sweetness of roasted squash
In my Butternut Squash Tart the sweetness of the squash is tempered by the heat of chilli and the aromatic sage
Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup combines two traditional flavour partners in a hearty vegetarian soup
Filo Triangles with Roasted Butternut Squash, Chilli and Pinenut filling are a brilliant lunch, picnic or snack recipe

Butternut Squash Soup with Peanut Butter

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

Author: Tastebotanical
Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 50
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Yield: Serves 6
Category: Soup
Cuisine: English

Print Recipe

Description

In this vegan soup, the sweetness of the Butternut Squash is balanced by warming chilli and rich peanut butter.

Ingredients

Scale

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion
1 butternut squash
Salt and pepper
2 garlic cloves
Half teaspoon of dried chilli flakes (optional)
1 litre (2 pints) water
1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder
1 tablespoon peanut butter
A little coconut cream and a few peanuts to decorate (optional)

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan
Peel and chop the onion and the butternut squash. Add the vegetables to the pan and season with salt and pepper.
Cook very gently for around 30 minutes until the vegetables are soft and sweet. Slow cooking caramelises the natural sugars in the vegetables and greatly improves the flavour of the soup.
Peel and crush the garlic cloves and add them to vegetables together with the chilli flakes. Cook for a further five minutes.
Add the water and vegetable bouillon powder to the pan containing the squash and onion. Gently simmer for around 15 minutes.
Blend the soup until it is smooth using a food processor or hand-held blender.
Add the peanut butter to the soup and gently re-heat.
If you wish, you can add a little coconut cream and a sprinkle of peanuts to each serving.

Keywords: vegan, butternut squash, peanut butter

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Feast Glorious Feast and #FiestaFriday with Fiesta Friday and Zeba @ Food For The Soul

Damson Gin

Home-made Damson Gin

Home-made Damson Gin liqueur is probably my favourite of all the flavoured gins that I make. The sharp sweet-sour fruit produces a liqueur with a brilliant punch of flavour. It is also a beautiful ruby red colour. If you make it in September when damsons are in season, you can enjoy drinking it at Christmas and New Year!

Why make your own flavoured gin?

It is extremely easy to make your own flavoured gin. You just add the fruit or other flavourings to the alcohol, add some sugar and leave it for a few months to transform into a delicious liqueur. Making your own also allows you to experiment with flavours and you know exactly what went into it.

There are lots of flavoured gin liqueurs available in the shops now. Many of them are delicious but they are often sold at premium prices. I find making my own very satisfying as you get a premium product at a low price. It is also a great way of using an over-supply of seasonal produce. Flavoured gins also keep for a very long time so if you make a batch in late summer or autumn, you can be sipping it all through the winter.

In praise of damsons

Damsons are small, dark purple fruit which have a strong sour flavour. Their sourness prevents them being eaten raw. However, they are excellent in a range of cooked dishes such as jams and preserves or fruit pies when their sourness is balanced by sugar.

This autumn I have been exploring the wonderful world of home-made gin. Inspired by the Rhubarb Gin and Elderflower Gin that I made in the spring, I started to think about which autumn fruits might also make a good flavoured gin.

Having made an excellent Blackberry Gin and Plum Gin in August, I started to wonder if there are any other seasonal fruit that I could use to make flavoured gin. In my local greengrocer, I spotted some damsons – small, dark purple sour plums which cannot be eaten raw but need to be cooked (with sugar) to bring out their flavour. I hadn’t seen them for years but they immediately brought back memories as my mother had a prolific damson tree in her garden. It occurred to me that they would make a good gin flavouring.

If you can’t find damsons, and they can be hard to source, you can make a great Plum Gin instead. However, if you do see them in a shop or market when they are in season in September, they are worth buying as they are great in jams and fruit pies as well as gin.

What you need to know about making Damson Gin

You can use any kind of gin in this recipe. I generally use a mid-range supermarket brand. You don’t want to use a really top-class gin – better just to drink that with some tonic – but on the other hand you don’t want to use something that tastes like lighter fluid! If you don’t have any gin available, you can substitute vodka. You just need an alcohol base that will absorb all the delicious fruity flavour of the damsons.
You need to allow four weeks for the flavour of the damsons to transfer into the liquid. However, you can leave them in for up to two months. The longer the damsons remain in the alcohol, the more intense the final flavour. Once the fruit is removed, the gin will last for at least a year.
I prefer to drink this gin liqueur on its own with no mixers. However, you can use it as an ingredient in cocktails. I have some recipes for Rhubarb Gin Cocktails where damson gin could be substituted for the rhubarb gin.

Other home-made gin

I love making fruit-flavoured gin and have lots of gin recipes. It is the perfect way to use seasonal fruit and flowers, at a time when there is often an over-supply, and preserve the wonderful flavour to enjoy later in the year. Some of my favourites are Blackberry Gin, Rhubarb Gin, Elderflower Gin and Plum Gin.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index or have a look at some of my other drink recipes.

Home-made Damson Gin liqueur recipe