My easy version is made with garlic, heavy cream, and parmesan. I use dried spices to streamline the recipe, and the result is comparable to much more elaborate ones. Soups are so comforting. I love onion soup, creamy cauliflower soup, and cabbage soup. This creamy soup is especially good and is one of my favorites to make in the fall and winter. The parmesan cheese adds texture and flavor, while a touch of heavy cream adds silkiness and enhances the soup’s delicate flavor. Considering it’s such an elegant and flavorful soup that you can often order in fine restaurants, It’s surprisingly easy to make at home!
Ingredients
Recipe Card
Butternut squash: It’s easiest to use pre-cubed packaged squash, fresh or frozen. Chicken broth: I use store-bought reduced-sodium chicken broth. When I have homemade chicken broth, I use that. To season: Kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and dried thyme. Heavy cream: ¼ cup is all it takes to add a silky creaminess to the soup. You could add a little more if you wish, up to ½ cup. Parmesan: Make sure you use finely grated parmesan and not coarsely shredded.
Simply cook cubed butternut squash in chicken broth and spices. Then, blend the soup with an immersion blender right in the stockpot. The last step is to add the dairy ingredients - heavy cream and parmesan cheese. Those add wonderful flavor and creaminess. The second method is to use an immersion blender and blend the soup inside the pot. The result won’t be as thick and creamy, but it’s just as tasty, and using an immersion blender is easier. Which of these methods you choose is up to you. Both work and yield great results, just different textures. When using a stand blender, never fill it past the maximum fill line. It’s best to fill it no more than half full. If the lid of your blender wasn’t designed to allow steam to escape, you’ll need to remove the centerpiece and drape a clean towel on top of the lid. You can hold down the lid when blending to prevent it from being pushed off, but do so without actually placing your hand - or your face - over the hot steam.
Thickening the Soup
After some trial and error, I have found that a ratio of four cups (20 ounces) of squash to 2 cups of broth works well. The heavy cream and parmesan further help to thicken the soup. But if you make it and are dissatisfied with how thick it is, you have three options:
Add more parmesan and/or more heavy cream. You can add an additional ¼ cup of each. Make a slurry of 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 3 tablespoons of cold water, add the slurry to the soup, and heat over medium heat, stirring, until the soup thickens (1-2 minutes typically). Stir in ½ tablespoon of coconut flour to the warm soup. Coconut flour is a powerful thickener, and the small amount added here won’t affect the soup’s flavor.
Thinning out the Soup
Sometimes, the opposite can happen, and the soup is too thick. If this is the issue, it’s easy to fix - simply stir an extra ½ cup to 1 cup of broth. You can do it after pureeing the soup. Then, keep cooking briefly to heat through. You can also preheat the extra cup of broth in the microwave. You can also freeze this soup for up to three months. I like to freeze individual servings and thaw them gently, covered, in the microwave at 50% power.
