Thai Butternut Squash Soup

My husband turns 40 this year! 40! Although age is just a number, it has spurred us to talk a little bit more about eating better and increasing our activity – if nothing else, it sets a good example for our kids.  This Thai Butternut Squash Soup is a first step… Jump to Recipe

Overall, we eat pretty well. No fast food, we very rarely eat out, but everyone has room for improvement, right? We started talking about how we could meal plan a little bit better and get more plant-centered meals into our diet. For a fleeting moment, we talked about doing a WHOLE30 plan but when we started looking into the details and saw no cream in our coffees, we put the brakes on that for now. (Not forever, just for now. New mom, new baby – must. have. coffee.) A big shout out to all of you who have successfully rocked WHOLE30. I bow down to you and maybe I will pick your brain in a couple of months…

But, for now, we are going to focus on eating a little more plant-based at dinner and there is talk of him even bringing his lunch to work… I will believe it when I see it. This Thai Butternut Squash Soup recipe could definitely be a WHOLE30 or PALEO recipe written as is. It could also be vegan if you use olive oil instead of ghee and it could be vegetarian if you leave out the fish sauce (totally optional for all of you, by the way, but I LOVE fish sauce – a little goes a long way).

Butternut Squash – Power Veggie

There is pretty much no vegetable I like more than butternut squash. I love it so much plain that it’s hard to save enough to make a soup. For this soup, I had to use five butternut squashes. Five! Think about that for a second … six of us ate this soup so each of us almost consumed an entire butternut squash in one sitting. Can you just see the fiber, potassium and B6 vitamins swimming around our bodies?

The hardest part of this recipe is cutting the squash!

Give this recipe a try … it is easy. I promise. The hardest part is chopping all the butternut squash. If that much manual labor does not appeal to you, check out the produce section of your grocery store. A lot of stores carry pre-chopped butternut squash. Total timesaver!

A few interesting ingredients add a lot of flavor … 

I love coconut milk because it’s a great dairy-free ingredient that has a lot of flavor. Look for coconut milk in cans in the International Food Aisle at your grocery store. Everywhere carries coconut milk. We have really liked the coconut milk we get from Trader Joe’s. Just shake the can a bit before you open it.

If you are vegan, leave out the fish sauce from this recipe. If you are not vegan, definitely start using this versatile ingredient. It really adds a lot of flavor to my Asian dishes.

We topped our soup with garlic chili sauce – another optional item but I love having little jars of the stuff on hand to add a kick to any Asian food you make at home. It lasts forever in your fridge and you only need a little bit to add some great flavor. Enjoy!

Our other favorite soups … 

Roasted Pepper and Tomato Soup

Vegan Sweet Potato Soup

Papa’s Fish Chowder

Make This Soup! 

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Thai Butternut Squash Soup

A super easy, good-for-you soup perfect for any night of the week!

Course Soup

Cuisine Asian

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Calories 379 kcal

Author Erin Brighton

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons ghee (or olive oil to make it vegan)
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 inch fresh ginger grated
• 5 butternut squash (between 8 and 9 cups of squash)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce (omit if vegan)
• 2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
• 1/2 lime
• 1 handful of cilantro leaves (optional)

Instructions

1. Saute onion and garlic in the ghee or olive oil.
2. Add the fresh grated ginger.
3. Add butternut squash and stir well. Let the butternut squash soften with the onions for about a minute or two.
4. Add the vegetable broth and cook for about 20 minutes over medium heat.
5. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until it is smooth.
6. Add fish sauce, chili garlic sauce and coconut milk. Stir well. Remove from heat.
7. Taste the soup. Add more fish sauce or chili garlic sauce if necessary. Add the juice from a half of a lime. Stir.
8. Serve the soup topped with additional chili garlic sauce and cilantro leaves.