Name: Butternut Squash Soup With Apples and Bacon
Cook time: 40 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Yield: 8 servings (about 8 to 9 cups)
Ingredients: 6 slices bacon, cut crosswise into ½-inch pieces; 2 celery ribs, chopped; 1 carrot, chopped; 1 medium onion, chopped; ¼ teaspoon cinnamon; ¾ pound boiling potatoes; 2 medium Granny Smith apples (about ¾ pound total); 1½ pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into ½-inch pieces (3½ to 4 cups); 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken stock or broth; 2 to 2½ cups water; Sour cream to garnish (optional)

A blue bowl of butternut squash and apple soup topped with sour cream bacon and thinly sliced apples.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Laura Rege

Creamy butternut squash soup is the perfect cold weather meal. This simple, warming dish is homey and comforting enough for a weeknight family meal but special enough to serve as an appetizer during the holidays. Here’s more good news: This entire recipe can also be made in one large pot. You start by rendering the fat from some bacon, then sauté diced celery, carrot, and yellow onion in that fat before adding the squash and some chicken broth. (We also add potato and green apple to make the soup even more flavorful.) Once the ingredients are cooked, you can blend everything with an immersion blender right in the soup pot or transfer it to a standing blender in batches. Serve the soup sprinkled with crispy bacon and slivered raw apple.

This easy butternut squash soup recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free (if you skip the sour cream topper); you don’t need heavy cream, or even coconut milk, since the blended squash is rich enough all on its own. While you can technically eat the peel of butternut squash, we remove it before we make butternut squash soup to preserve that creamy texture. (Peeling squash is pretty easy to do with a standard vegetable peeler, but you can also buy cubed, precut squash at the market to cut down on your prep time.) The base recipe is flexible enough to pair with a variety of flavor profiles, so feel free to play around with it; add some garlic cloves to the onion, sprinkle in a hint of cayenne pepper for some heat, or add some toasted pumpkin seeds and black pepper to the garnish.

Recipe information

Total Time
50 minutes
Yield
8 servings (about 8 to 9 cups)

Ingredients

6 slices bacon, cut crosswise into ½-inch pieces

2 celery ribs, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¾ pound boiling potatoes

2 medium Granny Smith apples (about ¾ pound total)

1½ pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into ½-inch pieces (3½ to 4 cups)

2 cups reduced-sodium chicken stock or broth

2 to 2½ cups water

Sour cream to garnish (optional)

Preparation

Step 1
Cook bacon in a 6-quart heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, then transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, reserving 2 tablespoons fat in pot. (Add vegetable oil if your bacon is very lean and doesn't yield enough fat.)
Step 2
Cook celery, carrot, and onion in fat in pot over low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Add cinnamon and cook, uncovered, stirring, 1 minute.
Step 3
While vegetables are cooking, peel potatoes and coarsely chop. Peel and core 1 apple and coarsely chop.
Step 4
Stir squash, potato, chopped apple, stock, 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper into onion mixture, then simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Step 5
Puree soup in 4 batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids), then heat in cleaned pot over medium low heat, stirring occasionally. (Add additional ½ cup water to thin, if necessary.)
Step 6
While soup is heating, cut enough of remaining apple into thin matchsticks (about 1½ inches long) to measure about ½ cup.
Step 7
Serve soup topped with sour cream (if using), bacon, and apple matchsticks.
Do Ahead: Soup can be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered once cooled. Cooked bacon can be kept refrigerated in an airtight container—reheat in a 375°F oven in a small baking pan.

Editor’s note: This ‘Gourmet’ original recipe was first published in April 2011 as Butternut Squash and Apple Soup. Head this way for more of our best butternut squash recipes →