This coconut acorn squash soup is all you need for a cozy dinner or lunch. Made with curry spices, apple, and celery root, this soup will be a weekend must at your home, and leftovers will make a perfect lunch tomorrow.
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WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS RECIPE:
-It is super healthy, loaded with veggies. Great for kids starting about year old, gentle on bellies unlike some other heavy soups, because acorn squash or any other types squash are perfect vegetables for sensitive or young digestive systems.
-It’s made with seasonal produce. Although in our state you can find acorn squash all year around, it is mostly available early fall through winter. Using seasonal produce can guarantee getting the most nutrients out of your meal.
-it is easy to make and doesn’t require too much chopping. Of course, you will need to do some chopping but because all ingredients will be blended you will not need to dice perfectly your ingredients.
-It is perfect for freezing. I am not a big fan of freezing soups, because all the veggies lose their texture, but this soup is a great recipe you can easily freeze and enjoy later.
INGREDIENTS
- Acorn Squash: 1 large acorn squash will be more than enough for this recipe. It is easy to pick a ripe acorn squash by looking at it. The ripe one will have dark green color with some orange or yellow spot where it was touching the ground while ripening.
- Yellow Onion: I used ¼ of a medium size onion.
- Fresh Garlic: you will need only 2 cloves, but do not skip it. This recipe needs fresh garlic.
- Celery Root: My celery root was huge, so I used ½ of it. I love using it instead of celery better because its creamier when blended and has subtler flavor. If your store does not carry the celery root just use 2 fresh celery ribs. Make sure celery ribs are freshly bought so they won’t give soup bitter taste.
- Chopped Carrots: it’s going to be 2-3 carrots or one cup of baby carrots that I used in this recipe cause I had to cook them before they go bad.
- Granny Smith Apple: 1 large granny smith apple, peeled and core removed. I think this type of apple works the best in this recipe due to its high acidity. It will give a nice hint of sour taste to your soup.
- Olive Oil: one tablespoon of olive oil will be enough to sauté the veggies. Plus, one more tablespoon to rub the squash before baking.
- Low sodium Chicken Broth: I used 3 full cups. when using full sodium broth, I find my soups still need salt to be added and when I do my soup becomes a high sodium recipe which I try to avoid if possible. With low sodium I still add some salt to my soup but at the end the recipe has lower amount of sodium.
- Salt: ½ teaspoon of salt per big batch of soup is quite a low amount compare to store bought soups and even with this amount your soup will taste savory enough. Plus, few pinches for you will need to sprinkle on the squash before baking it.
- Black Pepper: just few pinches on each half of the squash and also some for serving by taste. In soups I prefer to add little or no pepper to my soups during the cooking process because black pepper is like a tea, the longer it stays in liquid the stronger it becomes. So, it’s better to add fresh black pepper straight to your plate.
- Dry Ginger: about ¼ teaspoon.
- Mild Curry Powder: just ½ teaspoon to bring up the squash flavor on another level. If you like more spicy soups, add 1 teaspoon of curry.
- Coconut Milk: you will need ½ cup of coconut milk. Make sure it is unsweetened and unflavored coconut milk. You can use the full fat one as well. It will make our soup even more creamy.
- Sugar: ½ teaspoon of sugar or any other sweetener only if you squash happened to be not very sweet. Some of them are sure sweet and taste like candy and some need little bit of sugar added to bring up that sweet taste. One teaspoon of sugar for a big pot of soup will not make your soup unhealthy but it will help with balancing all the flavors especially the sourness that comes from apple.
HOW TO MAKE ACORN SQUASH SOUP:
1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Prepare and bake the acorn squash. Carefully cut the squash in half from tip to stem. PRO TIP: if it’s very hard to cut it, microwave the squash first for one minute, it will soften up the skin and will be easier to cut it. Use a metal spoon and scrape out the seeds and other stringy parts inside both halves. Place the squash halves cut side up in a glass or metal roasting pan and poor about ½ cup of water in your pan. It will prevent the squash from burning or drying out. Rub the olive oil on each halve and sprinkle just a pinch of salt and black pepper on top as well. Bake squash for 50-75 minutes or until soft inside. Check by inserting the fork in the orange part of the acorn squash, if it goes in easily the squash is cooked. Once it cooled down we are going to peel of the skin.
2. Prepare other ingredients. Cut off the green part of the leek, peel of the first outer layer, rinse it under cold water and dice. Set aside. Peel and dice the garlic clove and set aside separately from the leak. Wash, peel and coarsely chop half of the celery root and carrots. Peel the apple and remove the core with the seeds. Cut in cubes. Keep all prepared ingredient separately, except for celery root and carrots. Wait until the squash is baked.
3. Take out the acorn squash from the oven and let it cool down until it’s not too hot to handle. To speed up the process take it out of the baking dish and put on a separate cool plate. While the squash is cooling down let’s start making the soup. Poor tablespoon of olive oil in your Dutch oven or large pot, set on medium heat. Once the oil is hot add the leek. Cook it until translucent. Add celery root and carrots and continue cooking mixing occasionally with wooden spoon. Now let’s add garlic. I do it at the end cause it’s very easy to burn it and burn garlic will not taste good in this delicate acorn squash soup. Cook everything for another minute. Add your cubed apples, dry ginger, mild curry. Mix everything well and let it cook for one more minute. Poor all 3 cups of broth, cover, bring to boil and continue cooking on low heat for about 20 minutes or until carrots and celery roots are soft.
4. By this time the acorn squash cooled down. Peel of the skin off each halve and cube it. Doesn’t matter, we just need to fit it all in a pot, it will be all blended anyway. Add squash to the boiling pot of soup. Add there ½ teaspoon of salt. Once the soup is blended and ready you can taste it and add more salt if needed. Turn off the heat and blend the soup in batches in your blender. Be carefully, soup will be very hot and there might be splashes. Make sure your blender is safe for hot temperatures. Or keep the soup in the pot and use immersion blender, which in my opinions easier because you will have less dishes to wash and do not have to pour the corn squash soup from one container to another. When using immersion blender please be very careful and go slow, because it might splash the hot liquid. Try to stay as far as possible and keep kids away. Blend all ingredients together until silky smooth. Add coconut milk and one teaspoon of sugar and blend again on slow speed for few seconds. If you used regular blender, you can add coconut milk and sugar once the soup is transferred back to the pot and just give it all a nice mix, so everything is same consistency.
5. Once the soup is blended and your desired consistency, turn back the stove on low. Little bit of sugar is a game changer to balance sour, sweet, spicy and create super tasty acorn squash soup. Mix everything well with a spoon, cover and let it simmer on low for another 5 min. We want all ingredients to reach at last 165°F so the soup can be stored safely for up to 4 days in the fridge or up to 2 months in the freezer. Taste the soup and add more salt if needed. Enjoy!
HOW TO STORE THE SOUP:
- Let it fully cool down, but not more than one hour so bacteria won’t start growing. Since it’s a big batch of soup I recommend pouring it in 2-3 containers to let it cool down faster.
- After soup is fully cooled down, pour it into air tight container and refrigerate up to 4 days.
- Freeze it up to 2 months: pour the desired portions of cooled down soup in freezer safe containers or zip locks and freeze. Reheat as needed by using microwave or stove (recommended).
RECIPE TIPS:
- If you do not have much time or do not want to deal with the whole acorn squash but already cubed acorn or butternut squash, roast it with some olive oil in the oven until cooked and use for your soup.
- For more spicy soup add some red pepper flakes.
- If you do not like curry omit it and add some nutmeg (it really brings up the flavor or the squash), turmeric and some extra ginger.
- Celery root is sometimes hard to find, just use few celery ribs or skip this ingredient.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
- Some freshly made or store-bought garlic croutons is a perfect match for this soup
- Add some pumpkin seeds and micro greens for extra nutrition and esthetic look.
- Bread, fresh garlic bread is so good with this soup.
📖 Recipe
Coconu acorn squash soup
Equipment
- Immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 large acorn squash
- ¼ onion
- 2 clove garlic
- ½ celery root or 2 ribs of celery
- 1 cup copped carrots
- 1 ea large granny smith apple
- 2 tablespoon olive oil divided
- 3 cup low sodium chicken broth
- ¼ teaspoon dry ginger
- ½ teaspoon curry powder
- 1 cup full fat unsweetened coconut milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar or other sweetener
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Rub both halves with olive oil, little salt and black pepper. Bake 50-75 minutes or until cooked. Once it's cooked, cool down, remove the skin and cut into big chunks to be ready for the soup.
- Cut off the green part of the leek, peel off the outer layer. Dice leek and garlic, set aside separate from each other. Chop carrots and celery root, set aside. Peel, core and cube the apple.
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pot or dutch oven. Add leeks, cook until translucent. Add celery and carrots. Continue cooking for another few minutes. Add diced garlic and continue cooking for one more minute. Add cubed apple, dry ginger, curry and cook for few more minutes mixing with wooden spoon really well.
- Poor the broth, cover, bring to boil and simmer on medium-low heat for about 2o minutes or until celery and carrots are soft.
- Turn off the heat to reduce the burns in case if there will be splashes. Add cooked acorn squash and ½ teaspoon of salt. Blend everything until smooth using the immersion blender. Be very careful during this process! Add coconut milk and one teaspoon of sugar or other sweetener and blend on lower speed until all ingredients well combined.
- Turn back on the stove and let the soup simmer for another 10 min. We need to bring all ingredients to at least 165 degrees for all falvours blend well together and for storing the soup safely. Give it a taste, add more salt if needed. Enjoy!
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