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Happy fall y’all! The changing of the seasons means that fall squash and other produce are the cheapest I can find them all year. And that means it’s fall soup season in my house! I wanted to share with y’all the recipe for my absolute favorite fall soup, butternut squash soup!
The Ingredients
- 2 apples (Fuji, Honeycrisp, Gala, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, etc are all great choices. I would avoid Red Delicous)
- 1 large carrot (or 2 medium carrots)
- 1 small onion (yellow or white)
- 1 butternut squash (2 to 3lbs)
- 2 cups of chicken broth (vegetable for vegetarian or vegan variation)
- 1/2 cup of heavy cream (coconut milk for vegan)
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp of black pepper
- 1/4 tsp of cayenne
- 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
*Adjust spices to your taste. The amounts listed for the spices are my best guesses as I don’t usually measure spices 🙂
I usually make this recipe in my instant pot. However, any electric pressure cooker will do the trick. I haven’t personally made this recipe in a slow cooker, but I’m betting it would be fantastic in a Crock Pot as well.
Load the Instant Pot
The first step is to chop all the produce. This soup will be blended after cooking in the Instant Pot, so you don’t have to worry too much about uniformity of the ingredients. Be sure to omit the apple cores. You’ll also need to peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds.
Then it’s as simple as tossing all of the ingredients except for the cream into the Instant Pot.
Cook it Up!
Put the lid on the instant pot and remember to move the steam release valve to “Sealing”. Cook under high pressure for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes is up you can do a quick release of the pressure cooker.
I haven’t tried this with a slow cooker, but I would guess that 3-4 hours on high or 6-7 hours on low would do the trick. If you try it with a slow cooker, you’ll have to let me know!
Blend it Up (and some cautionary advice)!
If you have an immersion blender, it would probably be easiest to just blend the soup directly in the insert.
I used a traditional blender. Always use caution when using a canister blender to blend hot foods. The steam creates pressure that can cause the lid to pop off and the contents of the blender to spill out, creating the risk of burns (I’ve even seen this happen to the experts on Chopped!).
My blender has a lid that allows the steam to vent. If your blender is made to blend hot foods, it is best to wait for the temperature of the food to come down and blend the soup in very small batches (no more than a third of the blender’s capacity). Use a towel to hold the lid on the blender in case your ingredients are still too hot, and proceed with caution.
Add the Cream
Once your soup is blended smooth, it is time to stir in the 1/2 cup of cream. Once it is mixed in, all that is left is to taste the soup and adjust any seasonings as needed. Enjoy!
