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This vegetarian acorn squash and carrot soup is healthy, fresh, flavorful, and takes the chill off.
This post was originally published on October 19, 2015. I am going through and updating some of my old posts with new photos, better info, and more clearly written recipes.
I’m not the biggest fan of fall, since here in Alberta it means that we’re soon going to have half a year of cold weather.
Sure, the leaves on the trees are quite beautiful… until we have a windy day and they’re all blown off and then everything is dead until May. Bah humbug!
Anyway, I can get on board with fall foods at least. 🙂
I haven’t made this acorn squash soup since I first made it for the original blog post, and I forgot just how good it is!
And my feelings on cold weather are just the same as I wrote above in 2015. 😉
This soup is really easy to make, and it’s been fairly popular since I published it.
I figured it was time to update the photos and word the recipe a little more clearly so that hopefully I can get more eyeballs on this winter squash soup. More eyeballs on it = more happy tummies.
I love carrots. Somehow, though, I always seem to eat them in bursts vs. consistently. Fresh carrot juice is my favorite, and I’m all over carrot soup.
This soup contains butter, so it’s not vegan as written, but you can make it vegan quite easily by omitting the butter if needed.
I had some fresh chives on hand, and they make a wonderful topping for this soup, but they’re optional of course.
Looking for more cozy fall soups? You may also like my butternut squash soup, this carrot and celery root soup, my pumpkin and cauliflower soup with ginger or this corn and cauliflower soup.
Hope you love this squash and carrot soup!
Let me know below if you have any questions or comments.
Acorn Squash and Carrot Soup
Ingredients
- 1 acorn squash peeled and cut into cubes
- 2 pounds carrots (about 8 large carrots) cut into rounds
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 2 sticks celery chopped
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 2 dashes Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prep your squash and carrots. To peel the squash I cut it into quarters (or smaller if needed) and then peel each piece using a potato peeler. Chop the onion and celery.
- Melt the butter and olive oil on medium heat in a large pot.
- Add the onion and celery to the pot, cook for about 5 minutes on medium-high heat, stirring often, until softened.
- Add the vegetable broth, water, squash, carrots, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder to the pot.
- Bring soup to a boil and then cover it with the lid slightly ajar, and simmer on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes or until the veggies are softened (it may take more or less time depending on how small you chopped them).
- Working in batches, blend the soup until it's smooth. I recommend letting it cool for at least 15 minutes prior to doing this. You could also use a stick blender, but I prefer the results with a regular blender.
- Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve immediately. Can be stored in the fridge for several days or frozen for 3 months. I like to serve this soup with snipped fresh chives (optional).
Notes
- Serves 4-6.
- Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only and should be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. Ingredients can vary and Salt & Lavender makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
© Salt & Lavender Inc. Content and photographs are copyrighted. Sharing this blog post is much appreciated, but copying and pasting full recipes without authorization to social media is strictly prohibited.
Good afternoon, Trying your recipe for the first time. Curious if you have ever tried it with added parsnips?
Just wondering.
Thanks
Hi! I have not, but I think they would be a tasty addition!
Was looking for something creative to do with acorn squash and this definitely fit my fancy. Good balance of flavors, and I loved playing around with the spices.
For anyone else who might want to put this in a crock pot, here’s some suggestions:
I put everything in the crock pot, minus the water, for 3 hours on high. I didn’t use the olive oil to sauté the veggies, but did grease the crock pot with butter, mostly to help with later cleaning. If I do this recipe again, I’d probably sauté at least the onions before they go in the crock pot, for some more flavor. I probably ended up using a teaspoon of salt and teaspoon of pepper (for my taste) and about 1/2 a teaspoon of Italian Seasoning.
For anyone who might want a creamier soup:
After I puréed the soup, I liked the taste, but wanted something creamier. So I added about a 1/2 cup of half n half and did a couple dashes of nutmeg and cinnamon for a slightly less savory flavor. Half n half is what I had, but if I would have had some coconut milk open, that would be an interesting add as well.
Happy Cooking!
Glad you liked the flavors! Thanks for slow cooker tips, Josie!
I would leave out or cut down on the extra water in any future tries. I felt it was too “thin”. I would also experiment with the spices. Overall, very healthy ingredients and tasty!
I’m glad you liked it! Yup, definitely easy to adjust the liquid quantities. Thanks for commenting, Christine!
Great article.
Thank you for a great recipe! Just received a Staub dutch oven as a gift and was dying to use it. Had an acorn squash on hand, so I googled acorn squash recipes and found yours and decided to give it a try since I had all of the other ingredients on hand as well. Roasted the squash and carrots first, and used all chicken broth instead of vegetable broth and water. Neither myself or my husband are huge carrot fans but decided to give it a try anyway and so glad we did. Will definitely be making this again!
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Very easy, very good.
Thank you!!
Delicious!! I did not use vegetable broth, just water. Seasoned it to my liking with the suggested seasonings. Excellent!
Wonderful! Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
I too purchased a squash without any particular intentions. Just so happened to have carrots kicking around. I like how this recipe doesn’t call for cream or milk as we generally don’t have any in the house. I am very impressed with myself and this recipe after making this. It’s delicious!
I’m so glad it worked out for you, Shauna!!
Hello, I just wanted to ask if you thought this soup could be made in my vitamix blender? It’s supposed to get hot enough to cook things, but I didn’t know if that would affect the flavor because the ingredients would be blended before cooking and might not caramelize like when items are cooked in a pan.
Hmm that’s a very good question. I actually am planning on buying a Vitamix (or similar) soon. I just have a normal blender, so I have zero experience with this! I’d give it a try. I’m curious. If this was a roasted veggie soup, I’d say that yes you will lose flavor, but other than the onions sautéing, I’m not sure that the flavor will be compromised too badly.
Wow! So glad I had this saved on my pinterest board. I’m currently sitting, cuddled on my couch, watching freeform with a nice bowl of this soup in my lap. Only thing different I did was top it with Sumac to add some tang! This is absolutely delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
That’s great!! I wish I was as cozy as you right now haha. So glad you liked it!