This recipe for Acorn Squash Soup is incredibly flavourful and so easy to make! This creamy soup is made with roasted acorn squash for maximized flavour and is the perfect way to warm up this fall.
There is nothing like cozying up to a bowl of soup on a cold day. This Acorn Squash Soup is a creamy, delicious soup that will not only delight your taste buds, it’ll warm you up from your head to your toes.
While this recipe for Acorn Squash Soup wonderfully creamy, it actually contains no cream at all. In fact, it’s naturally vegan and loaded with healthy ingredients.
A lot of the delicious flavour comes down to roasting the acorn squash before adding it to the soup. While squash is delicious even if it isn’t roasted, there is something that happens to vegetables when they are roasted that just makes them 100 times more delicious.
This recipe for acorn squash soup is great for making ahead of time, which means you can meal prep this soup and have a weeknight dinner or even work lunch ready to go.
I love serving this soup up with loads of crackers or a nice grilled cheese sandwich or salad.
It’s also great to serve up as part of a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner spread, so be sure to keep this soup in mind for the holidays! Acorn squash soup is great as part of a turkey dinner complete with green beans, creamy whipped potatoes and stuffing!
Acorn vs Butternut Squash Soup
This recipe for acorn squash soup is actually based on my recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. When people think of squash soup, butternut is often the squash that comes to mind but that certainly doesn’t need to be the case! Acorn squash is just as delicious and works so well in a creamy soup!
While you can find that some butternut squash soups don’t involve roasting the squash first, acorn squash soups will definitely include this step. This has a lot to do with the shape of an acorn squash making it virtually impossible to peel and cube safely.
When making acorn squash soup, I often add a bit of sugar at the end to bring out the flavour. Butternut squash is naturally sweeter so I don’t do this with soups made from butternut squash. Since acorn squash isn’t as sweet, I find a little sugar helps to enhance the flavour of the soup.
Aside from these differences, both acorn and butternut squash soups are otherwise similar in both preparation and flavour. If you like the one, you will like the other!
Ingredients in Acorn Squash Soup
- Acorn squash: 2 large or 3 small acorn squash will produce about 6 servings.
- Olive oil
- Carrots, Celery & Onion: These cook together in the pot before adding in the roasted squash. They add great flavour as well as additional nutrients.
- Herbs: Sage and thyme add great flavour. I used fresh herbs but you can use dried as well. Remember as a general rule, when using dried herbs instead of fresh, use 1/3 of the amount as their flavour is concentrated.
- Salt and pepper
- Vegetable broth: you can substitute chicken broth instead if you are not serving to a vegan crowd.
- Sugar: As mentioned earlier, acorn squash isn’t as naturally sweet as butternut squash so a little sugar added to the soup helps to enhance and balance out the flavours.
Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.
How to make Acorn Squash Soup
- Roast the acorn squash: Carefully cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy core. Place onto the baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast until the squash is fork tender.
- Saute the other veggies: Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add the carrots and celery and saute for 3 minutes. Add the onion and continue to cook until the vegetables are soft and the onion is translucent. Season with salt, pepper, sage and thyme.
- Add the roasted squash: Scoop out the softened flesh from the roasted squash and add it to the pot along with vegetable broth.
- Cool and blend: Once the soup is cooled enough so that it is safe to blend, add the soup to a food processor or blender and puree.
- Heat and adjust seasonings: Transfer back into the large pot and heat through. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. I like to add some sugar at this point as I think the sweetness enhances the flavour (acorn squash isn’t as naturally sweet as butternut squash so a little sugar helps).
What to serve with this soup
This soup can be served as a starter for meals (I recommend starting off your Thanksgiving dinner with a bowl of this soup).
I frequently serve this soup as our dinner, served alongside a nice fresh salad or a grilled cheese sandwich!
I hope you enjoy this recipe!
-Cathy
Wondering what else you can do with Acorn Squash? Be sure to check out:
Roasted Parmesan Acorn Squash (I love to serve this as a side dish for Thanksgiving)
Turkey and Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash
Acorn Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 2 large acorn squash (or 3 small)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 1 carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 rib celery chopped
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 tablespoon sage finely chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon thyme fresh, leaves removed from stem
- salt and pepper
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon sugar or more to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Carefully cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy core. Place onto the baking sheet and drizzle with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until the squash is fork tender.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot. Add the carrots and celery and saute for 3 minutes. Add the onion and continue to cook until the vegetables are soft and the onion is translucent. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sage and thyme in the last minute of cooking.
- Once squash is roasted, scoop out the softened flesh and add it to the pot along with 2 cups of vegetable broth. Simmer for 10 minutes and then remove from heat and let it cool.
- Once cooled enough so that it is safe to blend, add the soup to a food processor or blender. You may need to do this in batches. Puree the ingredients until smooth. If needed, add the remaining cup of vegetable broth to reach the desired consistency.
- Transfer back into the large pot and heat through. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. I like to add some sugar at this point as I think the sweetness enhances the flavour (acorn squash isn't as naturally sweet as butternut squash so a little sugar helps).
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
