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

Active Time
40 minutes
Total Time
50 minutes

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.

Ingredients

8 servings (about 8 to 9 cups)

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)

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 →

Leave a Review

Reviews (51)

I've made this recipe or a version of it at least a dozen times. I'm the sort that if I have the basics I wing the rest. We grow butternut squash in our garden every year. So, we always have that. We always have onions - both garden and store bought. We always have carrots of one kind or another. We always have bacon. Recent changes I've made - broccoli instead of celery; adding a little yellow curry with the cinnamon; adding a a splash or two of apple cider vinegar; substituting an 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple for one one of the apples. One other thing I do is use an immersion blender instead of a standard blender. It's much safer.
- Bob E.
- Earth
- 3/27/2023
I appreciate this recipe. I've been making a similar soup, using the pre-cut pieces of butternut squash that can be purchased in some groceries, adding carrot and a Jonathan apple, as you do, but also adding red bell pepper. For spice, I've used Herb de Provence.I like the idea of adding potato. It's a great soup, but much better with homemade chicken stock rather than ready made -- and I make it without any added water. Good chicken stock really makes the soup. I've tried it with storebought stock, and then it does taste a bit blah. Thanks.
- Anonymous
- Chicago
- 1/4/2023
This was great! Super easy to come together, I used 1 c of apple cider and 1 c of water and a little bit of apple cider vinegar too and some red pepper flakes. I love the use of the apple in this, would definitely recommend.
- bourbonsurgeon
- milwaukee,wi
- 11/20/2022
A hearty soup that is perfect for the autumn season. Thick & satisfying, using seasonal vegetables. Everyone in this house ate it happily
- Josh Robinson
- Woodstock ON
- 10/14/2022
super good recipe with a wonderful depth of flavor. I did not peel the potatoes or apples ( why throw away fiber?!! ) , cut back on the salt, and added some cayenne while simmering. Also added some green onion tops chopped with the toppings & substituted plain yogurt for the sour cream.
- dlochnurse
- Fort Worth, Texas
- 12/30/2021
I made this vegetarian and followed the rest of the recipe as printed. I thought it was good, but a bit bland. Another review used cardamom in addition to the cinnamon. I would never have thought of this. I added 1/2 teaspoon in the cooked soup and it simply popped the flavor. I didn’t add the fresh apple on the first serving, but did so on the next serving and it actually made all the difference! Definitely something I’ll make again.
- daxsom
- San Francisco
- 1/10/2021
Had some Gala apples going soft and half a butternut squash. Made as instructed and wouldn’t change anything except maybe using a tarter Apple variety and/or apple cider as suggested by another reviewer. The cinnamon was subtle but necessary and the bacon made the dish! At least my husband’s eyes lit up when he saw the bacon! It was better the next day when the flavours had mellowed and melded together.
- peggyanne5
- Toronto, Canada
- 12/23/2020
Instead of the water, I substitute apple cider and also add 2 cups of cheddar cheese. It brings more flavor to the soup and smooths adds creaminess.
- schma23
- Buffalo, NY
- 12/6/2020
'Tis the season for soups (in Canada), don't you know! So, I'm on one of my kicks. This time, I tried this soup, and I love its depth of flavour and how creamy it is. I like this recipe a lot, but as I've said in previous reviews, I'm not crazy about elaborate toppings on my soups. For this soup, then, I left the bacon bits in the soup pot (nice smokey flavour) and cooked both apples with the rest of the soup ingredients. I'm not eating too many potatoes these days, so I omitted them and used 10% cream (aka Half 'n Half, about 400mL), adding it after puréeing the soup with an emersion blender. I then stirred gently with a wooden spoon until all was thoroughly heated. Because I used cream, I omitted the sour cream topper and placed some finely chopped chives and Asian-style crispy onions on top, just to try -- DELICIOUS! I really do enjoy the added flavour dimension we get from the Granny Smith apples. I suspect Spartans or the Northern Spy (for all from Ontario, Canada) would add that bit of needed tartness, too!
- rem2013
- Burnaby, BC, Canada
- 11/19/2018
This is a pretty good way to get rid of extra produce in your cupboard (I happened to have an extra couple squash and apples that needed to be used up), but isn't very inspiring otherwise. The one good thing about recipes like this is that they usually allow you to experiment a little, so in that respect, I'll keep it in my back pocket for a good "starter" dish to modify as I prefer or as ingredients allow. And of course, if you're comfortable with it, get yourself an immersion blender! Forget batching and blending. Immersions are the way to go! :)
- RadiantGrey
- Seattle, WA
- 12/19/2017
Very bland. Doesn't have the rich flavor of butternut squash that other cream-based squash soups have.
- bibbott
- Arvada, CO
- 11/21/2017
Made this last night and found it just blah. I followed the recipe exactly, including weighing ingredients to make sure I had the right balance. I'm sure this soup is very healthy, but it tastes like "health food". Butternut squash is a milder variety, so it might be better with another variety of squash or as another reviewer suggested, switching sweet potato for the white potato but I'm rating the recipe as written. The addition of the bacon and Granny Smith garnishes helped quite a bit (with garnishes, I would give it a grudging rating of 3), but I don't think a recipe should depend on garnishes to make it taste good. Finally, please don't rate recipes unless you have actually made them!
- pdxgourmet
- Portland, Oregon.
- 11/4/2017
This recipe is fabulous with Indian spices sauteed with the onion mixture. For a lighter soup, forget the potatoes.
- monelle
- 10/31/2017
I made this for Canadian Thanksgiving...we had 15 for dinner.. despite the fact that it had many ingredients, I found it boring..I did the garnishes exactly as written. still.....also cooled really quickly as I tried to serve it...so be aware of that..
- fwoodrooffe
- Toronto, Can
- 10/16/2017
Delicious soup, so perfect for fall! The family loved it!
- franksanpietro
- MemphisMemphisMemphism
- 2/9/2017