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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!
Wow! Most flavorful soup I’ve ever made. Every flavor comes through on it’s own, and together, they’re perfect. Perfect texture as well. I can’t wait for our guests to try it this afternoon. It’ll be a show stopper!
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!
How to make curried butternut squash soup
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 this recipe
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.
yes! I suggest chopping both the squash and the potatoes to the same size so that they cook evenly.
Unfortunately, I haven’t tried this before, so I’m unsure.
Leftover butternut squash soup can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
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:
- Cajun Butternut Squash Soup
- Homemade Minestrone Soup
- Secret Ingredient Tomato Basil Soup
- Comforting Red Lentil Soup (Daal Soup)
- Moroccan Sweet Potato Lentil Soup
Curried Butternut Squash Soup (Slow Cooker)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2¼ pounds butternut squash chopped into small chunks
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 2 granny smith apples diced
- 2 carrots cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon curry powder mild or hot and more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 cups vegetables or chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream plus more to thin soup to preference
Instructions
- SLOW COOKER: Spray a 7-8 quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Add the butternut squash, onions, apples, carrots, sugar, salt, black pepper, bay leaves, curry powder, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, and vegetable broth. Allow the soup to cook on the low heat setting for 7-8 hours or on the high heat setting for 4-5 hours.
- INSTANT POT: add everything but the heavy cream and cook on manual (high pressure) for 30 minutes. Let it hang out for 10 minutes before venting and releasing the pressure.
- BOTH: The butternut squash is done when you can easily pierce it with a fork. Using an emersion blender, or by pouring the soup in batches into a conventional blender, blend the soup. Make sure to hold the lid down with a towel if using a regular blender. Stir in the cream and adjust the curry powder, broth, salt, and pepper to your liking. Serve warm with garlic toast or saltine crackers.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I made this soup out of our leftover pumpkins from Halloween and it was a massive hit. My 10 year old daughter loves it and it has done 3 days worth of meals so far and I still have a couple of bowls left.
I have a question regarding the calories though if you are able to answer it please. It says on the nutritional information that there is 173 calories per portion and it makes 6 portions so without me dividing it up into portions when serving for my family could you tell me how many cups it is per portion please?
Thank you! 🙂
I made this last year. It was so good, I’m making it my go- to fall soup recipe. This will be dinner party #2. Have not found another squash soup recipe this good. Super delicious.
I don’t have a scale. Roughly how many cups of raw butternut squashed, diced, did you use?
Delicious curried butternut squash soup. Thick and creamy and flavorful and one of my favorite recipes. Incredibly fast in an instant pot.
Amazing! The whole family love this dish. Even my 6 & 8 year old children ? PS I tell the kids outs Carrot soup because they say they don’t like pumpkin soup ??
I stumbled across this recipe looking for a different slow cooker curried butternut squash soup. It sounded pretty good and the reviews were good, so I decided to give it a try. When I woke up in the morning, I wasn’t so sure. I was kicking myself for using curry powder instead of red curry paste. I blended it up using an immersion blender and tried it. OH. MY. WORD!!! It was A-MAZ-ING!!! The only thing I did differently was use less salt and swap the veggie/chicken stock for homemade turkey stock (because I had it on hand). I did NOT peel the apples and it didn’t matter one bit. After blending the soup, I added a can of full fat coconut milk which made it rich and creamy. This recipe is a keeper!!!!
I’ve made this recipe several times and it’s always a hit. One of my favorites! Thanks! I was wondering if you have any good suggestions for non-dairy substitutions for the heavy cream. The coconut drizzle is perfect but I wasnt sure if too much blended with the soup would cover the other great flavors. Also read another comment about Greek yogurt and maple syrup? Thanks!
Made this super easy, low budget, yet sophisticated soup for Friendsgiving this year. It was a HUGE hit! I love it and will absolutely be making it again.
To clarify … are the apples peeled ?
I didn’t peel them, but you can if you’d like!
I don’t know how you came up with this combination of flavors, but it’s FANTASTIC! I’ve made this recipe several times and I love it.
Is it really a tablespoon of salt?? That seems like a lot…
Wow! Most flavorful soup I’ve ever made. Every flavor comes through on it’s own, and together, they’re perfect. Perfect texture as well. I can’t wait for our guests to try it this afternoon. It’ll be a show stopper!
I have made this recipe twice now for friends and family. Everyone loved it! The blend of vegetables, apples, and spices is phenomenal. I also like how it is thick enough that it can be served as both a soup and a “curry” over rice. Definitely a keeper and will make again.
Wow absolutely yummy!! I’m addicted
Love this slow-cooker version! Have made this a few times now … enjoyed “as is” and also with Kabocha squash and Pears instead of butternut and apples.
I made this yesterday and it turned out soooo good! I used whatever other kinds of apples I had laying around and actually added some potatoes because my squashes were quite small. Also, after blending, I realized I wanted more curry powder. Will totally make this again!
I’m so excited, this is in the Crockpot as we speak!! I only had a little over a pound and 1 quarter of squash, but I added 2 extra carrots and the rest of the recipe as is. I’ll let you know how it turns out! The colour is so pretty and it smells delish!! Thanks!!
Oh, and I skipped the apple because I did not have one. Still delicious!
This was delicious! I made mine stovetop and added a red pepper. Used chicken bone broth. It was even better the next day. It was nice and thick, so I used a dollop of it on top of another meal as my sauce. Amazing!! And healthy too!!
Are the bay leaves pureed as well, or do you remove them?
Remove them.