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Slow Cooker Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash and apple slow cooked with warm spices, then blended smooth with coconut milk and finished with lime.

By Camille McLaughlin, RDN, LD, registered dietitian nutritionist

Built forVeganLunch
Also fits Paleo Whole30
Butternut squash goes completely soft over a long afternoon with apple, onion, and ginger, then blends into something thick and gold. Cumin, coriander, turmeric, and a little cayenne arrive after the sweetness rather than with it, coconut milk makes the bowl velvety, and toasted pumpkin seeds and torn cilantro give a smooth soup something to chew on.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe

There is no curry powder in this. Curry powder is a British invention that flattens a lot of different spices into one note, and in a soup this simple you can taste the difference immediately when you use the spices separately. Cumin, coriander, turmeric, a little cinnamon and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne is five jars instead of one, and it is the whole reason the soup tastes like something rather than tasting orange.

The apple is not a garnish or a trick. Butternut squash on its own goes flat and slightly dusty when you blend it, and it needs an acid and a brightness to push against. One tart apple cooked down with the squash does that from the inside, and the tablespoon of lime at the end does it from the outside. Take both out and you have a perfectly nice soup that nobody asks about.

Six hours in a slow cooker does something to squash that thirty minutes of roasting does not. It goes completely soft and sweet without ever browning, which means the blended soup comes out a clean bright orange rather than a muddy tan, and the texture is silky without any cream in it. It also means the pot can be filled before work and blended when you walk back in, with nothing at all to watch in between.

A smooth deep orange soup in a wide bowl with a swirl of coconut milk across the surface, toasted pumpkin seeds and torn cilantro scattered over the top. Save
Prep: 20 minsCook: 360 minsTotal: 380 minsMakes: 6 servingsServing: about 1 1/3 cups

Ingredients

Serves6Amounts change with the number. The nutrition panel is per serving, so it stays the same.
  • 3 lb butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
  • 1 large tart apple, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
  • 3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 3/4 cup canned full fat coconut milk, plus more for serving
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds, for serving
  • 1/3 cup torn fresh cilantro, for serving

Instructions

  1. Bloom the spices: Warm the olive oil in a small pan over medium heat and add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, and cayenne. Stir for about 45 seconds, until they smell toasted, then take the pan off the heat. This is the only stovetop step and it is worth the pan, because dry spices tipped straight into a slow cooker still taste raw and dusty six hours later.
  2. Fill the pot: Put the squash, apple, onion, garlic, and ginger in a 6-quart slow cooker, scrape the bloomed spices and oil over the top, and stir to coat everything.
  3. Add the broth: Pour in the vegetable broth and add the salt and pepper. It will not cover the squash and it is not supposed to, since the squash releases a great deal of water of its own as it softens.
  4. Cook it low: Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, until a squash chunk gives way completely against the side of the pot with no resistance at all. Give it the full time, because undercooked squash blends grainy and no amount of extra time in the blender will fix it.
  5. Blend it smooth: Blend with an immersion blender directly in the crock until it is completely smooth, or work in batches in a countertop blender with the lid cracked to let steam escape, since hot soup sealed in a blender jar will push the lid straight off.
  6. Finish with coconut and lime: Stir in the coconut milk and the lime juice off the heat, since coconut milk held at a hard heat can separate. Taste, and add more lime before you add more salt. Serve with a swirl of coconut milk, pumpkin seeds, and cilantro.
Nutrition Facts
6 servings per recipe
Serving sizeabout 1 1/3 cups
Calories262
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 13g17%
Saturated Fat 8g39%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 281mg12%
Total Carbohydrate 37g13%
Dietary Fiber 7g25%
Total Sugars 11g
Includes 0g Added Sugars 0%
Protein 5g
Vitamin D 0.0mcg0%
Calcium 137mg11%
Iron 3.4mg19%
Potassium 1021mg22%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Values are computed from USDA FoodData Central and are estimates. Per serving (about 1 1/3 cups).

Variations

  • Instant Pot: Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes with a quick release, then blend and finish with the coconut milk and lime as written.
  • With red lentils: Add a half cup of dry red lentils with the broth. They dissolve completely into the soup and take it from a light lunch to something that stands on its own.
  • Thai leaning: Swap the cumin and coriander for a tablespoon of red curry paste and finish with basil instead of cilantro. It becomes a different soup and a very good one.
  • With sweet potato: Use half butternut and half sweet potato. The soup gets deeper and sweeter and holds the spice a little better.
  • Less sweet: Leave out the apple and add an extra tablespoon of lime at the end. The soup goes more savory and leans harder on the spices, which some people prefer.

Storage & Leftovers

Cooled leftovers keep in the refrigerator for 5 days, which is longer than most soups on this site because there is no meat or dairy in it. It thickens as it chills and loosens again with a splash of broth.

Reheat gently over medium-low and stir often. Coconut milk can look separated when it comes out of the refrigerator, and a minute of stirring over low heat brings it back together.

It freezes for up to 3 months and freezes very well. If you know a batch is headed for the freezer, hold back the coconut milk and stir it in fresh when you reheat, since the texture comes back cleaner that way.

Notes & Tips

A few notes from my kitchen. Bloom the spices in a pan first, use less broth than looks right, and cook the squash until it collapses. Coconut milk and lime go in at the very end.
  • Bloom the spices first: Forty-five seconds in warm oil is the difference between spices that taste toasted and spices that taste raw and chalky. It is one small pan and it changes the whole pot.
  • Use less broth than looks right: Three cups looks stingy against three pounds of squash. Squash is mostly water and releases all of it, and a pot that starts too wet blends into something thin you cannot fix.
  • Cook it until there is no resistance: Squash that is merely tender blends grainy. You want chunks that collapse against the side of the crock under almost no pressure.
  • Coconut milk goes in last: Added at the start it separates and loses its silkiness over six hours. Stirred in after blending it stays creamy and gives the soup its finish.
  • Crack the blender lid: Hot soup in a sealed countertop blender builds steam pressure and will lift the lid off. Vent it and drape a towel over the top.
  • Lime before salt: When it tastes flat the answer is nearly always acid, not sodium. Add lime first and taste again before reaching for the salt.

Nutrition & Mindful Eating

This is a silky, bright orange bowl of spiced squash with coconut milk and lime that tastes far richer than it is.
  • This is a soup made almost entirely of vegetables and it still eats like a real lunch, which comes down to the coconut milk. The fat is what makes it satisfying and what keeps a bowl of blended squash from leaving you hungry an hour later.
  • Butternut squash is one of the densest sources of beta carotene in the vegetable aisle, and that fat in the coconut milk is what lets your body actually absorb it.
  • Blending does not remove the fiber, it only breaks it up. There is a real amount of fiber in three pounds of squash and an apple, and it is all still in the bowl.
  • Turmeric is here for color and flavor, and the black pepper alongside it is not incidental, since the compound that makes pepper sharp measurably improves how much curcumin your body takes up.
  • The pumpkin seeds on top are doing more than crunch. They add magnesium, zinc and a few grams of protein, and they give a smooth soup something to chew on.
  • As you eat, notice the warmth of the spices arriving after the sweetness of the squash, and let the lime clear the way for the next spoonful.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use frozen butternut squash?

Yes, and it saves the worst twenty minutes of this recipe. Use 2 1/2 lb of frozen cubes, add them straight from the freezer, and cut the broth back by half a cup since frozen squash carries more water.

Can I use light coconut milk?

You can, and the soup will be thinner and less silky. If you want to keep the body without the fat, use light coconut milk and leave the lid cracked for the last 30 minutes to concentrate the pot.

Do I have to peel the squash?

For a smooth soup, yes. Butternut skin stays fibrous even after six hours and shows up as threads in the blender. A sharp vegetable peeler and a cut in half lengthwise is the fastest way in.

It tastes flat. What did I miss?

Almost always the lime. Squash is sweet and low in acid, and without something sour at the end the whole bowl reads as dull. Add another squeeze before you reach for salt.