Curried Butternut Squash Soup {Slow Cooker}

Smooth, creamy, and super comforting Curried Butternut Squash Soup made in the slow cooker. Granny smith apples, onions, and carrots give this soup such an excellent, well-rounded flavor. A hint of cream makes it so comforting and luxurious!

It’s time to ditch the dutch oven.

And make curried butternut squash soup in your slow cooker.

A warm, comforting soup made with REAL food that I let simmer in my crockpot until the squash was tender and the whole house smelled like fall. It’s coziness in a bowl, a warm and hearty vegetarian soup for the soul.

When I first started recipe testing this soup, it would take me HOURS to make it. I would start by roasting the veggies on a baking sheet in batches. Then they would simmer it all in a large pot with curry powder, vegetable broth, and all the other spices. Finally, I’d blend them up, stir in the cream, and by then, I didn’t feel like making anything else for dinner. 

Curried butternut squash soup has come a long way since then. Now it all gets piled into the slow cooker, and all you need to do is blend it up with an immersion blender until you’re left with a puree and drizzle it with cream.

Wait, what? The taste? Did I find that oven roasting the veggies made a significant difference in flavor? Nope!

Ingredients to make curried butternut squash soup:

• Butternut squash: You’ll want to start with 2-2 ¼ pounds of chopped squash. Make sure to use a sharp knife when you’re cutting the squash. Sometimes I’ll just buy prechopped vegetables or squash at the store to cut down on prep time even more. This soup, provides a big punch of dietary fiber with all the fresh ingredients we’re using, and also happens to tons of vitamin A and vitamin C!
• Onions: You’ll want to use one large yellow onion that you dice up. Don’t worry about chopping the veggies precisely, it all gets blended it at the end anyway!
• Apples: I use granny smith apples for this recipe because it gives the soup a delicious depth of flavor while adding more nutrition. You can also use a different variety if you prefer your soup to have more sweetness.
• Carrots: Add natural sweetness and color to the soup. 
• Spices: This soup is heavy on spices but that’s where all the flavor is! You’ll need salt, black pepper, bay leaves, curry powder, and ground cinnamon. The curry powder will provide most of the flavor here. It contains ingredients like ground turmeric, coriander, cumin, chili powder, and ginger amongst others. Use hot curry powder for more heat or mild curry powder for less. And you can always add a small pinch of cayenne if you prefer to give the soup a good kick!
• Sugar: Adds a hint more sweetness. I prefer to use brown sugar for this recipe but maple syrup would also work well.
• Garlic: Cloves of garlic and onions are the aromatics that we use. They add flavor, aroma, and a cozy feel!
• Ginger: fresh ginger adds a little bit of warmth and lots of flavor to the soup. It also works well with the carrots and apples in this soup recipe.
• Vegetable broth: I usually have a carton of vegetable broth in the pantry so I use that but you can also use chicken stock or chicken broth here if you’d like.
• Heavy cream: I add the heavy cream to the soup right and the end and also like to drizzle a bit on each bowl as a garnish. You can also use coconut milk in place of heavy cream if you’d prefer to keep this recipe dairy-free and vegan-friendly!

Instructions for making curried butternut squash soup:

1. Prep everything. Start by peeling your butternut squash with a peeler. Remove the seeds with a large spoon. You can keep the pumpkin seeds and roast them with taco seasonings or your favorite all-purpose seasoning later! Chop the apples, carrots, and onions into large chunks.
2. Load it all up. Spray a 7-8 quart slow cooker with cooking spry. This just makes for easy cleanup later. Add your chopped veggies to the slow cooker along with light brown sugar, salt, black pepper, bay leaves, curry powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves garlic, and vegetable broth. Allow the soup to simmer in the slow cooker for 7-8 hours on the low setting or on high for 4-5 hours. You just want all the veggies to be fork-tender so that it’s easy to puree.
3. Finish the soup. Using an immersion blender or my pouring the soup in batches into a conventional blender, blend the soup. Make sure to hold the lid of the blender down with a towel as sometimes it can get hot! When the puree is a sauce-like consistency, add it back to the crock pot. Stir in the cream and adjust with additional curry powder, broth, salt and pepper to your liking. Sometimes I’ll add in fresh lime juice or lemon juice for a bit more tang. Serve the soup in your favorite soup dish, straight from the slow cooker, or ladle it up in bowls and serve immediately!

FAQs about slow cooker curried butternut squash soup

1. Can you make curried butternut squash soup in an instant pot? Yes! Just add everything but the cream to the instant pot and set the pressure cooker on manual high pressure for 30 minutes. Do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes. You would then follow the same instructions as the slow cooker by pureeing and stirring in the cream.
2. Can I substitute sweet potatoes for some of the butternut squash? yes! I suggest chopping both the squash and the potatoes to the same size so that they cook evenly.
3. Can I sub in yogurt or sour cream instead of the heavy cream? Unfortunately, I haven’t tried this before, so I’m unsure.
4. How long do leftovers last? Leftover butternut squash soup can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
5. Can this be a ‘freezer’ meal? You can prep and add all the ingredients (except for the cream) to a ziptop freezer-safe bag and freeze if you’d like. When you’re ready for soup, just pop the contents into a slow cooker along with the stock. The cooking time may take at the upper end but the recipe should work out just the same!

If you like this recipe, you might also like:

1. Cajun Butternut Squash Soup
2. Homemade Minestrone Soup
3. Secret Ingredient Tomato Basil Soup
4. Comforting Red Lentil Soup (Daal Soup)
5. Moroccan Sweet Potato Lentil Soup

*Please note: the nutritional facts calculated are an estimate based on the ingredients I’ve used. If you’d like a more accurate count, please calculate them using the ingredients/brands you’ve used to prepare the recipe. The nutritional info for this butternut squash soup is based on six servings.*

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