Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Celebrate the return of the Autumn season with this easy spin on roasted butternut squash soup that can be made in an air fryer to save time or in the tried and true oven for the classical home cooks. It’s rich, creamy, packed with tons of filling fiber, and surprisingly dairy free. But don’t worry, I made sure to include some ideas for adding a bit more protein. Because we all know the leaves falling symbolize the beginning of bulking season.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup Ingredients

At first glance, the ingredient list might look long. But don’t let that deter you, especially if you can get your hands on pre-cut butternut squash like I used. Here’s everything you’ll need for the base of your butternut squash soup:

• diced butternut squash (how to dice butternut squash)
• peeled and roughly chopped carrots (I used carrot sticks)
• Granny smith apple
• shallot
• garlic cloves

And that’s it. You don’t have to worry about precision dicing or chopping as everything will just get roasted and blended together in the end.

For another fun way to use this pre-diced squash, check out my BBQ chicken butternut squash nachos.

The rest of the ingredient list will be olive oil and seasoning for roasting, and the broth and milk for blending the roasted veggies into creamy butternut squash soup.

Just get (nearly) everything into a mixing bowl and toss together. Once mixed, you’re ready to roast.

Roasting the Butternut Squash Soup Ingredients in an Air Fryer

There’s no denying the time saving capabilities of the air fryer when it comes to roasting vegetables. Even with a giant batch of veggies in a smaller (6.5-quart) air fryer, this roasting job takes about 40 minutes from start to finish. You’re looking for all the vegetables, especially the carrots and butternut squash, to be fork tender.

The recipe calls for stirring halfway through and adding the garlic cloves in the back half of the cook so they don’t burn. You don’t want too much browning on any of the veggies, so if anything looks to brown at the 20-minute mark, you may reduce the heat. Every air fryer is different so minor adjustments may need to be made for larger/smaller air fryers.

Roasting in an Oven

If you don’t have an air fryer, you can easily roast the veggies for this butternut squash soup in an oven. After mixing everything together, transfer to a half sheet pan or large baking sheet and bake for about an hour at 400ºF. You’ll probably want to stir everything about halfway through to avoid too much browning on any one side.

I tested roasting the garlic cloves peeled and unpeeled and didn’t experience any burned garlic with the peeled cloves. So I would do the peeling on the front end instead of peeling hot garlic cloves after roasting.

You won’t have enough time to get properly roasted, caramelized garlic in the oven. So if you wanted to do it ahead of time, you could use my air fryer roasted garlic recipe to get it done in about 45 minutes.

Blending the Roasted Veggies

You should be able to fit the entire batch of roasted vegetables and broth in a 72 oz blender. Anything smaller, like an 8-quart food processor, and you may need to blend in batches. You can also add the roasted veggies and remaining ingredients to a soup pot and use an immersion blender.

While the recipe calls for vegetable broth and lite coconut milk, you can use any broth and milk or cream. The Kettle & Fire bone broth I used for my Instant Pot chicken birria would be a great, albeit a little expensive, way to add some protein to your soup.

Once blended, you can transfer everything to a soup pot over low heat to keep warm. I like to let the butternut squash soup hang out so all the flavors have ample time to get to know one another.

If you’re using an air fryer/pressure cooker combo like the Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot Duo Crisp I use, you can conveniently use the keep warm function for your soup instead of a separate soup pot. You should also bookmark my Ninja Foodi Recipes and Instant Pot Air Fryer recipes posts if you fall into this camp.

Adjusting the consistency of your fall vegetable soup is as simple as adding more broth and/or coconut milk. The soup may thicken as it rests, so adding some liquid before serving might be a good idea.

What to Serve with Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I recommend topping your soup with pepitas or some form of roasted, salted nuts or seeds and a drizzle of maple syrup or extra cream. You could also go with a salty topping like crispy bacon and chopped chives or fresh herbs. Some of the grilled bread from my whipped feta dip would be a great pairing as well.

For pairings, I think sandwiches are a no brainer. To keep the Fall theme going, check out this Sweet Autumn Turkey Sandwich or Apple Butter Turkey Grilled Cheese. Or if you have leftover proteins, you could turn them into a melt or something like our leftover pulled pork grilled cheese.

What about lighter options? How about this Fall spinach salad or Fall Harvest salad?

You can also find more main dish and protein pairing ideas in the serving recommendations for my air fryer butternut squash and brussels sprouts recipe.

And that should cover it! I hope you enjoy your roasted butternut squash soup. If you do, I always appreciate recipe reviews.