How to Make Butternut Squash Soup in the Crock Pot
Ah shucks, one of the BAD things about living in the Philippines is that there are regular power cuts. Well, for me that spells a mini disaster because I work a whole lot of the time online. My laptop no longer has a functioning battery thus the only way to safeguard any work that I do (including the writing of blog posts for this website) is to save my work regularly. Obviously, you’re not going to save your work every single minute of the day, but then that poses something of a risk. And yup – I just succumbed to losing my original pumpkin soup post to a powercut. Damn nuisance so it is!
Here we go again then…
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Vegetarian Butternut Squash Soup
A good butternut squash soup in my mind is a creamy delight! I don’t particularly like butternut squash to be honest, but in a soup it’s incredibly delicious, if the soup is done right.
Credit to a cafe here in Lapu Lapu, Philippines. They do an excellent pumpkin soup – it’s one of the best soups I’ve ever had, and it’s the best meal I’ve had in the Philippines since I came here five months ago! Okay, so it’s not exactly a meal, and it’s not quite butternut squash (although I suspect it actually is but they call it pumpkin soup) but you probably get my point.
The cafe is called Moon, and it’s situated in Grand Mall, central Lapu Lapu.
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Hey, I best back this post up right now. One moment please…
Apparently we’ve just succumbed to a tornado here in Cebu. Fortunately the worst of it past by during the night. Tons of heavy rain and strong gusty winds but other than the short power cut there’s little to be seen as far as damage is concerned.
Yeah, veggie butternut squash soup…
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As mentioned, for me, a good butternut soup, nay – a great butternut soup is creamy, sweet, thick, hot (I’ve had cold butternut soup before and it’s actually pretty good too, but I always prefer hot, chunky soup to cold). And for me, because I adore spicey hot, I’d add some chopped chilli padi to the top with a sprig of sage (if I can find such a thing here in Lapu land) just to finish the “dish” off. Gee, my mouth’s watering just at the mere thought of it!
(Incidentally, I couldn’t locate the sprig of sage, but I did get some ground sage, so I’ll see what can be done there. Not exactly apt, as it’s supposed to be a garnish 
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Let me make one thing clear here though. Some dishes, in my mind, work well when you add lots of accoutrements to them. For example, if I’m making a general hot spicy, chunky soup, I’ll pick up 10 different bits and bobs and throw them all in and voila! My results are great time and time again! BUT… when it comes to something like a pizza or a vegetarian butternut squash soup, I like it SIMPLE.
A good pizza for me is cheese. Cheese. No pineapple, no peppers, no nothing, just cheese and the tomato base! In this case, the more you add, the less I enjoy the end result. And it’s the same for squash soup. Don’t go adding bacon, potatoes, the kitchen sink. It’s butternut soup, not smorgasborg soup.
That said, let’s move forward:
I”ve decided to include carrots to this version of vegetarian or vegan butternut squash soup. Plus, I’ve changed the original version to that of a crock pot butternut squash soup.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 carrots, roughly chopped
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 2 small or one large butternut squash, peeled and roughly chopped
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- 1 cup soy milk (or single cream)
- 1 oz butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- 5 sprigs parsley
- Saute the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery for no more than 5 mins over a medium heat using a good-sized skillet or large-sized frying pan. Then, add the squash and the spices. Stir occasionally and retain over medium heat for a further 5 mins.
- Add the sauted ingredients to the crock-pot. Combine the stock and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hrs.
- After crock-pot cooking, transfer to a blender and puree for a few seconds.
- Add in soy milk (or single cream) and heat in crock-pot for further 60 mins.
- Serve up and top off with sprigs parsley.
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