Easy Curried Butternut Squash Soup

This easy curried butternut squash soup recipe is just perfect, creamy and seasoned with ginger and curry paste. Your search for the best squash soup is over!

Why make butternut squash soup when you can make curried butternut squash soup? Yes, the Thai flavors of coconut, ginger and curry are the perfect match to this lightly sweet orange squash. Before Alex and I learned to cook, I remember some friends invited us over for a cozy fall meal and made a soup like this one. I was floored that soup could taste this good. It’s silky, creamy, and warming from the inside out. It’s one of our favorite butternut squash recipes of the season (except this butternut squash risotto).

What does easy mean? Are there time savers?

Yes, we’ve added the word “easy” to this curried butternut squash soup. This is with the strong caveat: peeling and chopping a butternut squash is not easy. In fact, we’d call it a bit of a pain! However, Alex has helped me to realize that there is value in the chopping process. He turns on music and jams while he cuts: he says he finds it soothing! I’ve started to try to channel that sort of zen in my chopping: and I’ve actually started to enjoy it too. That said: chopping a butternut squash can be a little tricky: see the section below for all our secrets.

Time saver: If you’d rather shortcut wrangling the season’s most popular squash, you can shortcut it! Simply use frozen cubed butternut squash: it’s available at most mainstream groceries in the frozen aisle.

How to cut butternut squash, the easy(ish) way

Alex and I stayed away from butternut squash for years because it takes too long to peel! (And sweet potatoes taste pretty much the same…right?) But now, we’re armed with our favorite method for peeling and chopping squash! Since the easiest way to show how to cut butternut squash is to actually show you, we made you a video (below).

Tip: One of our favorite tips for peeling a butternut squash: use a squash peeler! It’s serrated, which makes it easier than a normal peeler. Here’s the serrated vegetable peeler we use.

How to make curried butternut squash soup: the basic steps

Once you’ve got the butternut squash under control, the rest of this recipe is a breeze! Here are a few notes and tips about this curried butternut squash soup:

Chop: First, chop all of the ingredients: the squash, and then onion, ginger, and carrots. In the recipe below, we’ve linked to all our knife skills to help you navigate the prep.
Boil: Saute the onion in olive oil for about 5 minutes. Then you’ll add the veggies and broth and boil for about 10 to 15 minutes until it’s all tender.
Blend: The final step is to blend everything with chickpeas, coconut milk and red curry paste. The chickpeas add body to the soup and make it more filling by adding plant based protein: it’s one of our favorite tricks!

The secret ingredient: Thai curry paste

The secret to the flavor in this creamy curried butternut squash soup? Thai red curry paste! Thai curry paste is a jarred paste that combines flavors you’ll find in Thai curry: garlic, lemongrass, ginger and more. Grab a jar from the store in the international foods aisle, and it keeps for months in the refrigerator. Some Thai curry pastes are spicy and some don’t have too much heat.

Our favorite brand of Thai curry paste is Thai Kitchen, and it doesn’t add much heat to the overall dish. If you can’t find it at your local grocery, here’s a link to Thai Kitchen red curry paste on Amazon.

Do I need an immersion blender?

Alex and I used our immersion blender for this soup. Do you need one? Not necessarily. An immersion blender is also called a “stick blender” or hand blender. It’s useful for making pureed soups and sauces. Instead of transferring hot soup to a blender and then back, you can just place the stick blender right into the pot! The downside? It can be messy, leaving little orange splatters all over your kitchen! You can easily use a normal blender as well.

If you’re looking for one, here’s the immersion blender we use! Immersion blender on Amazon.

Sides to serve with curried butternut squash soup

That’s all you need to know about the method: now let’s talk about serving it! This curried butternut squash soup is tasty and hearty, and because of the blended chickpeas and coconut milk it’s more filling than most blended soups. Because it has plant-based protein, you won’t need to add as much to it to make it a meal as something like our Instant Pot butternut squash soup.

Here are some ideas for how to serve with this curried butternut squash soup:

Top with c rispy chickpeas.
Serve with toast spread with goat cheese.
With pita pizzas: try our Thai curry naan pizza.
Use it as an appetizer for Spring Roll Noodle Bowl or Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai.
Homemade croutons and roasted salted pepitas.
As a lunch, homemade crackers and slices of smoked gouda.
Grilled cheese! Try our spinach artichoke grilled cheese.
With beet salad with balsamic dressing. Or beet and apple salad.
With vegan cornbread slathered with almond butter.
With a hearty grain salad, like farro with mushrooms.

This recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, and vegan.