Vegan Butternut Squash Ginger Soup – Mommy Blogger soup recipes
Vegan Butternut Squash Ginger Soup is the perfect thing to stave off winter chill. Soups are on the agenda for a bunch of chefs I know (including some Mommy Bloggers you should be following into 2020) so make sure to check the links in the notes for some other PHENOMENAL soup recipes.
Because I’m not vegan, I struggle with building flavor without butter, chicken broth, or fish sauces. My secret is to good vegan flavor is Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base. I keep their vegetable, beef, and chicken bases as a staple in my kitchen. Costco sells the big jars and I’m in love with them.
Why Vegan Butternut Squash Ginger Soup, you ask? I have a food allergy that has recently gotten quite serious (oranges, weird? right). And this has opened my eyes to the challenges people with food restrictions face. So many of the moms that I know had to go dairy free while breast feeding and Thanksgiving through Christmas is a tough time for being dairy free.
People with dietary restrictions have a hard time at the holidays and this dish is an easy one to make ahead, freeze, and have available for folks who don’t eat meat or dairy.
Tools for making Vegan Butternut Squash Ginger Soup
I used my new Prepdeck while making my Butternut Squash Ginger Soup. And, wow. I am so impressed, y’all. If you mis en place when you cook (aka get all your ingredients ready before you start cooking) it is an amazing set of tools. It functions and cleans up beautifully.
I bought an extra set of the containers so that I could prep more than one meal at a time. The way I figure it, if I’m chopping one onion, I might as well chop 2. The lids seal nicely, and the smaller dishes nest into the containers even with the lids. So, you can shop small portions of herbs or liquids and store them with smaller amounts of other ingredients.
The Prepdeck itself looks attractive sitting on my counter. I selected the birch grain finish to complement the earth tones of the early 2000s kitchen I inherited when we moved to this house.
The integrated tools are useful, the peeler also has a leaf stripping function (which, if you are a kale eater, is worth it’s weight in gold). The juicer and graters mount right on the containers so you don’t have to dirty additional tools. They slide in a drawer on the left of the unit along with additional lids. For the Butternut Squash Ginger Soup I used the grater, peeler, and garlic peeler.
The BPA free cutting board attaches with magnets to the bottom of the unit, allowing easy removal for cleaning or for transferring chopped materials to your cooking pot. The scrap compartment lets you slide trimmed materials right out of the way as you work, when you are ready for clean up it slides out of the right side of the unit for an easy trip to the compost pile.
Here’s what is actually different for me using the Prepdeck. I am eliminating washing additional bowls – yes, I have to clean the containers, but before, I was using multiple bowls that took up WAY more space in my dishwasher and way more space on my counter. This all resulted in the cooking process feeling messier.
And I’ve found that as soon as the kitchen feels messy it’s as if I have stood on the island and shouted to my entire family, “HEY! Y’ALL, better make a giant mess in the kitchen between now and dinner.” The Prepdeck, itself has a dramatically smaller footprint than my previous mis en place methods.
I use a hand food mill with the smallest screen to ensure the beautiful texture of this Butternut squash Ginger Soup. This quickly processes the vegetables resulting in a silky smooth soup. You could also accomplish this with a blender, stick blender, or food processor, but I prefer the hand food mill because it allows removal of the more fibrous parts of the vegetables. Since we made a big ass pot of soup, reserve a quart and freeze it for later, make sure to label it with the date.
Notes
Also, all savory food at my house start with shallots, onions, and 4x (at least) as much garlic as seems reasonable. So feel free to back off on those when you customize Vegan Butternut Squash Ginger Soup for your family.
Regular readers may notice that I love a double base soup (for a meatier alternative to the Vegan Butternut Squash Ginger Soup try my Double Bean Soup). While boxed or canned stocks are great way to start building depth of flavor. But, after extended simmering the texture of some of the veggies leaves something to be desired. I find pureeing these and recombining them into the stock makes for a more pleasant finished product. Roasting some of the veggies adds flavor.
But here’s the truth. I’m not vegan. This soup is amazing if you roast the veggies in butter and finish it with some heavy cream.
A note on picking and working with ginger – you want a nice fat hand (or foot, as my toddler helper kept calling it) that isn’t wrinkled or withered. A spoon is the perfect tool for removing the papery skin without removing the most flavorful layer of the root.
This is my favorite way to make this Butternut Squash Ginger soup. But this recipe easily adapts for different flavor profiles. My husband doesn’t love ginger like I do, so sometimes I make it with way less. And when I am sick I like to really up the horseradish.
Vegan Butternut Squash Ginger Soup
Meat and dairy free puree of roasted and poached butternut squash is brightened by the addition of high note flavors like ginger, horseradish, and dill.
Ingredients
- Whole Butternut Squash, small
- Diced Butternut Squash package, 32 oz
- Vegetable Stock, 2 boxes
- Cold Pressed Sesame Oil (not toasted), 1.5 tbs
- Vegetable Better than Bouillon, 2 tbs
- 2 shallots diced, 1 red onion (2/4 cut large and 2/4 diced), Garlic as needed (I used 6-8 cloves) 1 tbs minced, the rest whole
- Ginger, between 2-6 inches of a nice fat hand
- Coconut cream 2 tbs
- Assorted optional herbs, I used parsley 1 tbs minced, dill 2 tbs minced, 2 tbs horseradish.
- 2 apples peeled and diced
- 2 carrots peeled and diced
- 4-6 inches of lemongrass
Instructions
Preheat Oven to 425
Gather your ingredients and prep.
- Wash and mince herbs.
- Peel and mince garlic, peel whole cloves. Dice 1/2 onion, 2 shallots. 1/2 onion peel but leave whole
- Peel 6 inches of ginger. Mince outer layer for 2 tbs. Rough chop in large pieces the fibrous center.
- Peel apples, retain peel and add to container with herbs and minced garlic. Core and chop apple.
- Peel butternut squash and divide into large pieces.
- Peel carrots and dice
- Portion out coconut cream, sesame oil, Better than Bouillon.
Roast Vegetables for best taste
- On a baking sheet mix 1/2 the package of butternut squash, apples, diced onions, shallots, carrots, and whole garlic cloves with sesame oil. Roast in oven until all fork tender 12-20 min depending on how big you diced things.
Cook Butternut Squash Stock
Add both boxes of vegetable stock to large stock pot. Bring to light boil.
- Add large butternut squash chunks, remaining butternut squash from package, minced ginger and large ginger pieces, minced garlic, minced herbs, apple peels, 1/2 onion, Better Than Bouillon, lemongrass, horseradish, Coconut Cream simmer until all vegetables are fork tender.
- Strain or skim out the solids from the remaining liquid. Reserve liquid in stock pot. Use a fork to separate chunks of butternut squash and reserve. Compost or discard the remaining solids.
Mill (or puree) all the vegetables and mix back with stock. Salt and Pepper to taste. Add more minced ginger or horseradish to taste.
Serve garnished with some roasted beet puree or a dollop of coconut cream, or both!
Enjoyed this recipe? I've teamed up with some other awesome food bloggers to bring you a variety of new soups to try with your family. Check out:
www.midkidmamablog.com/chicken-noodles-soup
https://www.formommysdragons.com/roasted-vegetable-soup/
https://notsosupermomvssociety.com/ultimate-taco-soup/
https://www.faustisland.com/health-benefits-of-cabbage-and-a-delicious-cabbage-soup-recipe/
https://motherinthemountains.com/cafe-zupas-pumpkin-chorizo-soup-recipe/
And let me just say, these ladies are amazing. They work so hard, make sure to check them out. They are pretty much my Mommy Blogging goals for 2020.
Also, if you saw anything about the Prepdeck in the last year, believe the hype. And get your favorite cook one for the holidays.
Notes
This is my favorite way to make this Butternut Squash Ginger soup. But this recipe easily adapts for different flavor profiles. My husband doesn't love ginger like I do, so sometimes I make it with way less. And when I am sick I like to really up the horseradish.
Enjoyed this recipe? I’ve teamed up with some other awesome food bloggers to bring you a variety of new soups to try with your family. Check out:
www.midkidmamablog.com/chicken-noodles-soup
And let me just say, these ladies are amazing. They work so hard, make sure to check them out. They are pretty much my Mommy Blogging goals for 2020.
Also, if you saw anything about the Prepdeck in the last year, believe the hype. And get your favorite cook one for the holidays.
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