Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

One of my favourite phrases in the English language is “squatternut bosch.”

Remember when Ross Geller tried to say butternut squash and it came out “squatternut bosch”? Because I do. Not a single Thanksgiving passes without me hunkered over the oven, saying “squatternut bosch” to myself and cackling.

This recipe is an ode to the humble butternut squash, the most curvaceous of gourds. This soup has so few core ingredients that our real job is to draw out the best in each one. Take our treatment of the squash, for example. We dice it to increase the surface area we have to work with. We roast it to concentrate its sugars and flavour. We toss it in sugar to caramelize it slightly.

So, dear reader, grab that gourd and let’s get our squatternut bosch on!

1. Equipment & Ingredients

Equipment

Heavy-bottomed pot, e.g. dutch oven
Oven-safe wire rack*
Baking pan

*We use a wire rack on top of a baking pan instead of just a baking pan, to increase the surface area where our squash can experience the heat of the oven. It also prevents our squash from sitting in its own sweated juices.

Ingredients (full list in the recipe card below)

2. Step-By-Step Guide

Step 1: Roast your squash and garlic.

Prepare: Preheat your oven to 425°F. Peel your squash, cut in half (lengthwise), and scoop out the seeds. Cut into 1-inch cubes. Toss your cubed squash and 3 UNPEELED garlic, in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Spread across a wire rack above a baking pan.

Bake: Bake at 425°F for 30 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

When your squash is ready, it should smell incredible: sweet, buttery, and a little nutty. When I take mine out of the oven, the aroma transports me to a summer fair – like I am walking past a stand selling baked sweet potatoes.

Why do we cube our squash instead of just cutting it in half?

I get it – squash is tough and leaves a weird film on our hands. Cubing it sucks and we don’t want to do it.

However, cubing gets you a significantly better end result, so I submit to you that it’s worth it.

The more surface area we can get on the squash, the more of it is well-roasted, browned, and carmelized – all of which leads to a deeper, more flavourful soup.

I have tried making this soup both by (1) halving the squash and (2) cubing it. The soup made from cubes is leagues ahead. When I roast my squash in halves, the top layer of each half is delicious: golden brown, slightly crispy, and starting to caramelize from its own sugars. However, the successive scoops into its flesh reveal duller, wetter, mushy flesh – still delicious in its own right, but deprived of the magic that only comes with immediate exposure to the heat and dryness of the oven air.

Step 2: Saute your onions and garlic.

While you wait for your squash and garlic to roast, saute your onions and remaining garlic.

Peel your onion and garlic. Roughly dice your onion. Finely mince your garlic.

Heat a bottom-heavy pot, like a dutch oven, on medium-high and add 2 tablespoons each of olive oil and butter. Heat until the olive oil is simmering and the butter has melted and slightly browned.

Add your chopped onion and garlic. Saute until onions are soft and golden brown – around 5 minutes.

Step 3: Bring (almost) everything together and simmer.

When your squash is fork-tender and browning at the sides, take the pan out of the oven.

Remove the roasted garlic from their peels by either peeling the shells or squeezing the garlic out of the shells. Discard the shells.

Add roasted squash and garlic, homemade chicken or vegetable stock, and (optional) ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg to your pot.

Simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Add cream and puree.

Pour in almost all of your 1 cup cream, saving a little (if desired) to use as a garnish at the end.

Using an immersion blender, puree your soup until silky soft.

If you don’t have an immersion blender but have a regular blender, wait 5-10 minutes for your soup to cool off a bit. Ladle a few scoops of soup to your blender – filling to no more than ½ of your blender’s capacity. Blend with your blender until smooth. Repeat for the rest of your soup.

If you don’t have any kind of blender, wait until your soup cools off a bit, take a potato masher, and get to mashin’!

If you don’t have a potato masher either, you can use the back of a big flat spoon or spatula to smush the squash, Nothing wrong with a chunky soup!

Step 5: Second simmer.

Simmer for another 10 minutes for flavours to marry. Add salt to your taste.

Step 6: Garnish and serve!

Garnish with your choice of whipping cream, roasted pumpkin seeds (AKA pepitas), pepper, and/or fresh parsley/cilantro.

For the whipping cream – you can take a spoonful of cream, and pour it slowly in a spiral across the top of your bowl. Or, for more control, pour the cream into a squeeze bottle and dispense that way. I find that the local dollar store sells tiny squeeze bottles perfect for such garnishes!

Serve immediately.

Sip and say “ahhh!”

3. Recipe Card

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