Roasted Winter Squash Soup

Everybody loves a butternut squash soup, but what if you have a variety of sweet winter squash nearing the end of their shelf life, and you just want to use it all up at once? Good news – you can! In the roasted winter squash soup recipe below, I’ll show you an exact recipe for using up a bulk of your different varieties of winter squash, but fear not – if you don’t have the exact squash I do, it’s totally adjustable, just use 6lbs of any type of sweet winter squash you have.

The best part – we’re using bacon. Animal fat, when coming from grass-fed or uncured meat, is less inflammatory for many people than processed oils, and bacon adds a saltiness and flavor that can’t be found anywhere else in nature. However, if you’re a vegetarian, you can replace the bacon with 4 tablespoons of butter, and the chicken broth with vegetable stock (add more salt for this).

If you’re dairy-free, paleo, or simply want fewer calories, you can completely omit the heavy cream, or add more broth/stock.

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You’ll want to start with any winter squash you have. For example, in this recipe, I used 6 lbs of Delicata squash, Acorn squash, Honeynut squash, and Winter Sweet Kabocha squash.

After peeling and chopping it becomes around 5lbs of squash for the recipe.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Add your cubed squash to a large baking sheet. Drizzle with walnut oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until soft, shuffling halfway through and keeping a good eye on them so they don’t burn.

In the meantime, add chopped bacon to the bottom of medium saucepan over medium heat and cook. Once crispy, remove bacon and set aside for garnish, leave the fat.

Finely chop onions and sage, and add to saucepan with red pepper flakes, reduce heat to low, and cook for about ten minutes. If you notice the onions are beginning to burn, which can happen on hotter stoves, then simply add a couple of teaspoons of water here and there to keep the onions softening.

Once the onions are translucent, add apple cider to the saucepan and use a spatula to mix around and scrape all the sticky oniony goodness off the bottom of the pan. This is a culinary trick that adds a lot of flavor to the soup! If you have a non-stick pan, you might miss out on this part, but add the apple cider nonetheless.

Let the apple cider reduce entirely by letting it simmer for a few minutes, then add the chicken broth and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

At this point, the squash should be about ready. If you have an immersion blender, you can simply add the squash to the saucepan, and use an immersion blender to blend it into soup right in the pot. If not, use a blender and add the squash to the blender with the broth mixture. Cover the blender with a dish towel and hold the top while it blends (hot things in blenders can tend to erupt when the food is hot and the blender is too full, so be mindful.) For that reason, if you have a small blender, don’t fill it, blend in two batches.

Slice your ciabatta bread into 1/4-1/2″ slices and toast or broil. Drizzle slices with honey.

To the soup, add heavy cream, and mix. Add salt and pepper to your liking. Pour into bowls, top with crumbled bacon and microgreens if you have them, and gently squeeze a lime wedge over each bowl, placing on the edge so everybody can add it to their liking. Serve with sliced ciabatta drizzled with honey for dipping!

If you try this roaster winter squash soup recipe, I’d love to hear how you liked it, and any adjustments you made, if any! Leave a comment below with your review!