Vibrant butternut squash and red pepper soup made with roasted vegetables. A super-easy to make, cozy winter soup.
Beautiful and delicious roasted red pepper and butternut squash soup perfect for cold autumn and winter days. A butternut soup is always amazing, but add some roasted red bell peppers and you will have a whole new taste experience.
Not to mention that the dish will be so orange-red and pretty. That makes it also suitable for serving to guests. A beautiful starter for Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner or a hot, healthy, and comforting meal any day of the week.
What do you need?
Vegetables: butternut squash, red bell peppers, carrots, onions and garlic.
Liquids: chicken or vegetable stock and single cream. I use turkey or chicken stock/ bone broth most of the time, but vegetable stock is fine as well. Either homemade or bought and good-quality.
Spices: sweet and smoked paprika, chili flakes or cayenne pepper to taste, a little lemon juice, and sugar. I would not leave out the lemon juice and sugar. Even if the quantities are so small that you would think they would not matter. But they do!
Can you make the recipe vegan?
- So easily.
- Use vegetable stock instead of chicken and replace the single cream with plant-based cream.
- For a change, use 1 can of coconut milk and only 1 liter/ 34 fl. oz/ 4 ¼ cups vegetable stock. Absolutely delicious, we had that many times as well.
How to make red pepper and butternut squash soup?
- Roast the vegetables.
- Clean and cut them all into larger pieces.
- Coat with oil and spices and roast until soft.
- Transfer to a pot or into a blender. (1)
- Add about half of the stock and puree with an immersion blender. Add the cream as well. (2)
- If you have a blender, use that instead, the butternut squash and red pepper soup will be even smoother. I do prefer using a good blender (in my case, the Thermomix), I love that silky-smooth consistency. Once blended, pour the contents of the blender into a pot.
- Add the remaining stock and the cream. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Adjust the taste with lemon juice and sugar, salt, pepper, and chili flakes.
Tips for making butternut squash and pepper soup
The squash can be replaced with pumpkin, a flavorful kind of pumpkin. Hokkaido (red Kuri squash) is always my first choice.
You can peel the peppers after roasting them. Many people don't tolerate the peel well, but as I never had any issues with it, I just leave it on.
I am not a fan of extremely thick soups that feel more like a puree than like a soup. However, if you like an even thicker dish, you can reduce the amount of stock slightly. Use as much as you like to reach the desired consistency. And, if you would like it to be thinner, use more stock.
How to store?
The roasted pepper and butternut squash soup keeps well in the fridge for 3-4 days, you can reheat it as often as you like. If it thickens slightly in the fridge, add more stock when reheating.
You can also freeze it in airtight containers for up to 3 months.
How to serve?
You can serve the butternut squash and red pepper soup as a starter for a festive meal.
Or as a regular soup for lunch or dinner.
What to serve with it?
Bread: try Spelt Bread, Flaxseed Bread or Crispbread.
Toppings: roasted chickpeas, crisp hot bacon pieces, roasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds, dukkah.
To make a complete meal, make a salad. How about an autumn salad like this Pear Celeriac Salad?
More butternut squash recipes:
Air Fryer Butternut Squash - Two Ways
Butternut Squash and Sausage Stew
Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Soup
Ingredients
- 750 g/ 1.7 lb butternut squash
- 2 large red bell peppers
- 2 large carrots about 350 g/ 12.4 oz
- 2 medium onions about 150 g/ 5.3 oz
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¾ teaspoon sweet paprika powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 1,3 liter/ 44 fl.oz/ 5 ½ cups chicken stock Note 2
- 125 ml/ 4.2 fl. oz/ ½ cup single or heavy cream Note 3
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- chili flakes to taste
- fine sea salt and black pepper
- chopped parsley optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius/ 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
- Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds and chop it roughly, about 2 cm/1-inch large pieces. Deseed and quarter the pepper. Peel and slice the carrots rather thickly. Chop the onions roughly. Peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole.
- Place all the vegetables on the prepared baking tray. Pour the olive oil over them and sprinkle them with paprika, salt, and pepper. Rub well with the hands to coat all over.
- Roast for about 30-40 minutes, tossing halfway, or until the vegetables are tender.
- Place them in a soup pot, add about half of the stock. Blend until smooth and then add the remaining stock and the cream. Alternatively, blend in a blender with about half of the stock and then pour into a soup pot, add the remaining stock and the cream.
- Bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes. Adjust the taste with salt, pepper, lemon juice, sugar, and chili flakes.
- Sprinkle with parsley before serving.
Notes
- The nutrition is calculated with single cream.
- Vegan version: replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock and the dairy with plant-based cream.
- Coconut milk version: use only 1 liter/ 34 fl.oz/ 4 ¼ cups vegetable stock and 1 can of coconut milk (400 ml/ 14 oz).
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