Ok, I’ll admit it, scouring the internet and cook books looking for a roasted butternut squash soup Vitamix recipe had never really crossed my mind, and would not have seemed to be a fun way to spend a few minutes on an otherwise quiet Saturday afternoon. But after receiving a most generous gift from family members recently, a Vitamix high performance blender, I had a pretty quick change of heart.
A few Vitamix models have a soup mode, where the blender actually heats up the ingredients due to the high speed friction created by the blades. Well, this sounded too good to be true, so what better way to break my new kitchen toy in than by making a soup for my wife, who has been asking for roasted butternut squash soup for quite a few years, to no avail.
Since trying to become much more aware of the food I eat, and attempting to complete my daily menus with real foods, without resorting to commercially processed foods, I have been struggling with expanding my family’s repertoire, especially with vegetables. Receiving the Vitamix seems to have opened up a number of doors that I might not have previously considered.
In the box with the blender was a cookbook to help with getting started. And one of those included recipes was roasted butternut squash soup, which I may have modified just a bit. And once I did a little research on the health benefits of squash soup, I was sold. Plus, I read that butternut squash is much better for you than zucchini, which I really don’t like, so it’s a total win-win! Apparently, the squash is very high in carotenoids, which have been shown to have heart protecting qualities.
Another benefit of this soup is that the recipe calls for homemade chicken stock, or vegetable stock. Since I usually have a bit of chicken stock sitting around, and have already learned all about the awesome health benefits of homemade chicken stock (and here’s another link) made with real chicken bones, instead of the boxed store bought variety, it was all falling into place!
Some people may see that there is a bit of heavy cream in the recipe, and decide to skip it, either because it’s dairy, or because they fear the fat content of the cream. Not me. My family is definitely not dairy free as part of a specific diet, but we do make it a point to avoid low-fat dairy. And we use only full fat milk and cream from pasture raised cows because we believe in the nutritional benefit of those products when compared to the normal fare found at most supermarkets, not to mention the moral and humane considerations of how most dairy cows are treated in today’s over-processed over-medicated dairy industry.
But if you really must skip dairy, or cream, it’s pretty easy to swap out the cream and instead use coconut milk.
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cups chopped butternut squash
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 shallot
- 1/2 apple seeded
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne optional
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup heavy cream or coconut milk
Instructions
- In a pan, combine olive oil, squash and chopped shallot, and roast over medium heat, stirring every few minutes
- While squash is cooking, add broth, apple and all spices to Vitamix, holding the cream back for later
- Once squash has been roasted, so that parts have been caramelized, add to Vitamix
- Select soup mode on Vitamix, start and allow to complete cycle. If you do not have a soup cycle, blend on high until very smooth and warm.
- Open top, being careful, it will be hot, and add cream to soup, and replace top
- Switch Vitamix to a low speed and start, slowly increasing speed and blend for another 30 seconds
- Serve hot
Nutrition
Yet again, here is a recipe where the nutrition facts will depend upon exactly how much squash you count as being 4 cups worth, and how big a serving is. For me, my 4 cups weights very close to 400 grams, and a serving is about one mug. But of course, you don’t know how big my mugs are! But basically I feel that I can pour out about 8 servings from this recipe. They are not main course sized servings, but rather appetizer sized, if that helps at all.
This recipe is wonderful, I adapted it for my use the other night, and I wanted to thank you for creating & posting it! One thing — your Vitamix must be different from mine, because mine doesn’t have a “Soup” setting, or any other “setting”, for that matter. It’s simply got the One to Ten dial, and a “Pulse” button. Still, I got it done, and it was very simple. Thanks again!
I’m glad you liked it, reminds me it might be time to make it again! I
just got my Vitamix last year, 2013, so it sounds like you might have an
older model, glad you got it to work for you, I’m looking forward to
having mine for years and years!
I need to make another batch, as well. 🙂 Actually, I got mine for Christmas last year (2013), brand new, from QVC.
You must have the 5200 model with just the speeds. The more expensive models have the settings.
How much is 20 grams of onion?
a whole onion sounds like it might be a bit too much for my tastes, but whatever works best for you is fine by me! 20 grams isn’t very much, maybe a wedge cut out of a medium onion, not even a quarter of the onion.
The soup is great. I just made it in my Vitamix. I used evaporated skim milk. I did not have on hand all of the spices.
I try to stay away from canned dairy, just a personal preference, it’s too much of a processed food for my tastes, that’s why I usually stick with real cream, or a bit of coconut milk instead.
This is too spicy for my 9 year old and even for me. I used 4 cups of squash (I guess I should have weighed it) and two shallots. I will continue to hunt for a good vitamix butternut squash recipe. I am looking for something that doesn’t use so many pots and devices.
I made the recipe exactly as noted, but it was so spicy I unfortunately had to throw it out. If I were to make it again, I would leave out the cayenne pepper completely. The recipe calls for both cayenne and white pepper. I thought it would be ok because it was such small amounts of both. Not so. I love a bit of kick in my food but this was a WALLOP…. 🙁
That’s too bad, I didn’t think it was very spicy at all, sorry. Maybe try it again without the pepper if you’re up for another effort!
I took all the ingredients and threw them in the vitamin for about 5 minutes. I did leave out the milk and threw in a handful of cashews for creaminess. It 2as delicious, going to make it quite frequently I think since I have a bunch of butternut squash in the garden, thanks for sharing!