Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk

Learn how to make a creamy and delicious butternut squash soup that includes flavors that pair perfectly with the squash.

It’s actually amazing how easy it is to make butternut squash soup. The most difficult part is peeling and chopping up the squash, which can be cumbersome. Because of that, I’m explaining instead how to cook the squash whole, with the peel on. You’ll do that first, and it’s ridiculously easy, and then the rest of the soup-making is a breeze.

As you read on, you might find it surprising that this soup has coconut milk and basil in it. Most people expect butternut squash soup to have things like pumpkin pie spice in it. I urge you to try my version since it truly is delicious. But, if you want to go the more traditional route, simply use whole milk in place of the coconut milk, and pumpkin pie spice instead of basil. It’s going to be incredible, and you’ll quickly learn how versatile this soup recipe is.

How To Make Butternut Squash Soup

To make this soup I roasted a whole butternut squash. As in, I roasted it while it was still whole, like this. This is the easiest way to cook a butternut squash, hands down. It also gets you a bit of caramelization flavor. If you want the squash to be ready even quicker, you can instead microwave it whole, or cook it whole in the Instant Pot. Any of these options will work just fine. If you bought already peeled and cubed raw squash, you’ll need 4 cups of it, and you can roast it like this or simmer it in salted water until fork-tender, the amount of time it will take depends on how big your cubes are. Then you puree your cooked squash together the rest of the ingredients, heat it up and dig in.

Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk

★★★★★

5 from 1 review

• Author: Christine Pittman
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Soup
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American

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DESCRIPTION

The subtle sweet flavor of the coconut milk works really well with the squash. The lemon mellows out some of the sweetness, and if you’d like, a tiny bit (like half of a teaspoon) of sriracha or other hot sauce adds a lot of depth. You’re going to love it!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 whole (3 lb.) squash*
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 10 fresh basil leaves, plus more for garnish
• 1 can (13.66 oz.) coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. lemon juice

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a pan with aluminum foil. Put the whole squash onto the pan. Poke it in several places with a sharp knife. Roast until a skewer or paring knife goes in easily, 60-80 minutes. Or, cook the squash in any way you’d like until soft.
2. Once the squash is cooked, heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until softened, 2-3 minutes.
3. Put the squash, sauteed onion, basil leaves, coconut milk, maple syrup, and salt into a heavy-duty blender or a food processor. Puree until smooth. (Alternately, you can use an immersion blender to puree it all in the saucepan).
4. Transfer the mixture to the sauce pan and heat over medium, stirring occasionally, until steamy hot but not boiling.
5. Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice. Stir.
6. Taste. Add more salt and maple syrup if desired.

Notes

*1 whole 3 lb. squash is equivalent to about 4 cups of cubed raw squash.