Butternut Squash Soup with Red Lentils
A beautiful butternut squash soup with enough substance to make a real meal of it. Finish each bowl with a colorful medley of toppings: a bright herb oil, toasted pepitas, goat cheese, or whatever else you have on hand. Peak meal in a bowl situation.
This is the butternut squash soup I’ve been making when I want something more substantial than a typical silky puree. Red lentils give it body and a protein boost, while tomatoes and tomato paste offset the sweetness of the squash. Garlic, yellow peppers, and fennel seeds keep things dynamic, and a couple handfuls of cashews blend into beautiful creaminess. It’s an ideal lunch soup, and you’ll find me topping it with whatever is waiting for me in the refrigerator. Lately that has meant these roasted cherry tomatoes, an herby marjoram oil (recipe included below), crumbled goat cheese, toasted pepitas, and sometimes, if I’m going all-in, an egg.
A Note on the Squash
I note this in a few places on this page, but it deserves emphasis. You can make this soup using butternut squash as well as a wide range of other winter squash, or even sweet potato. I love using red kuri squash with its dense sweet flesh and deep color. Kabocha squash is another regular go-to, along with acorn squash and adorable honeynut squash. I'm seeing honeynuts more and more alongside traditional butternut squash these days, they look like pint-sized versions.
For the Silkiest Soup
When I'm feeling lazy, I often blend soups like this using a simple hand blender. It makes for easy cleanup. And for this exact soup, the hand blender does a pretty good job - really smooth, but not hyper-silky. All of which is a long way of saying that this soup goes next-level when you use a high-speed blender, and the result is arguably worth the extra effort. But don't be deterred if a hand blender is what you use! It can still do a good job, the photos here are of a version I made using an old-school hand blender.
Best Toppings for Butternut Squash Soup
You can see in the photos I topped this lunch with a bright herby-olive oil drizzle. There’s cherry tomatoes, a bit of goat cheese, and some crunchy pepitas. But this soup is a real chameleon and welcomes a wide range of topping directions. Some other ideas: kale chips, crispy chickpeas, magic sauce, chile crisp, homemade labneh, roasted lemon chutney, candied walnuts, oil-cured black olives, toasted sliced almonds, toasted pumpkin seeds (you can make these with the seeds from whatever squash you’re using).
Make Ahead and Freeze
This is a favorite soup to make-ahead and freeze in batches for quick, healthful meals down the line. Reheat and add toppings before serving. If the soup thickens up too much for your liking, add a bit of water or broth and re-season.
More Soup Recipes
- Rustic Cabbage Soup
- Tortellini Soup
- Roasted Tomato Soup
- Lively Up Lentil Soup
- Split Pea Soup
- Miso Soup
- White Bean Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil
- all soup recipes
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Butternut Squash Soup with Red Lentils
Play around with different types of winter squash here! Beyond butternut squash, I love red kuri squash, acorn squash, and kabocha squash. Yellow bell peppers are the easiest to find option on the yellow pepper front, but in late summer there are other yellow peppers to seek out as well, and I particularly love the Cornito Giallo sweet peppers from the farmers’ market. I make this soup with water, but if you have a good vegetable broth you like on hand, use that. I also like to cook the lentils separately here, instead of simply adding them to the pot, because I feel like it keeps the flavors clearer and brighter - because you’re pouring off some of the murky lentil water. You could add the lentils along with the squash and water, but you'll have to up the water quite a bit.
- 3 pound butternut squash, red kuri squash, or acorn squash
- 1 cup / 130 g / cashews
- 8 cups water or broth
- 1 1/2 cups / 12 ounces / 340 g red lentils, rinsed
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 medium onions, chopped
- 3 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, lightly crushed in m+p
- 3 yellow peppers, seeded and chopped (about 2 cups)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 7 ounces / 200 g tomato paste
- 1 pound ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1/4 cup fresh oregano or marjoram
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt.
- Other topping ideas: crumbled goat cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, toasted pumpkin seeds or pepitas, tiny pinch of smoked paprika
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Carefully cut the squash in half, and then quarters. Removed all the seeds, and trim the skin from the squash. Cut into 1-inch chunks and set aside, you should end up with roughly 2 pounds of peeled squash, it doesn’t have to be precise. In a small bowl cover the cashews with 1 cup of the water and set aside as well.
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Place the lentils in a medium pot, cover them with a few inches of water and cook over medium-high heat until very tender - 12 minutes or so. Drain and set aside.
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In an extra-large soup pot over medium-high heat add the olive oil, onions, and salt. Cook, stirring regularly, until the onions are golden. Stir in the fennel seeds and the yellow peppers and cook for another minute or two.Stir in the garlic and go another couple of minutes before stirring in the tomato paste. Cook another 2 minutes while stirring. Stir in the tomatoes, and then the cubed squash, along with the remaining 7 cups of water.
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Bring everything in the pot to a simmer, dialing back the heat if needed, for 25-30 minutes, until the squash is very tender. Stir in the red lentils and the cashews along with their soaking liquid.
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Cook for another 5 minutes or so, remove from heat, and then carefully blend (in batches, if needed) with a high speed blender until silky smooth. I’ve blended this soup using a hand blender in the past, and it works well enough, but if you want a next-level silky smooth bowl of butternut squash bliss, this is the time to break out the Vita-mix. Season with more salt if needed.
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Serve topped with any or all of the suggested toppings. To make the herb oil: puree the olive oil, herbs, and salt in a food processor or with a hand blender. It will keep refrigerated for up to a week.
Serves 8 - 10.
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