Creamy Roasted Butternut Squash, Apple & Sage Soup
There’s something about the first truly chilly days of fall that makes a warm pot of soup feel less like dinner and more like a ritual.
This one is everything we love about October cooking. It’s simple, seasonal, nourishing, and made with ingredients that let the flavors of the harvest do most of the work. Roasting the butternut squash, apple, onion, and garlic first brings out their natural sweetness, while fresh sage gives the soup that earthy, unmistakably fall flavor.
And while it tastes wonderfully creamy, it only needs a small splash of cream at the end. Serve it with warm sourdough or homemade croutons, and you’ve got the kind of simple farmhouse meal we could happily eat all season long.
Prep time: 15 minutes • Cook time: 45 minutes • Serves: 4–6
Ingredients
• 1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
• 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and quartered
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6–8 fresh sage leaves, plus extra for garnish
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• ¼ to ½ cup half-and-half or heavy cream
• Pinch of nutmeg, optional
Instructions
Heat oven to 425°F.
Place the butternut squash, onion, apple and garlic on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and thyme. Add the fresh sage leaves and toss everything together.
Roast for 30–35 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the squash is tender and beginning to caramelize around the edges.
Transfer the roasted vegetables, apple and sage to a large pot. Add the broth and bring to a gentle simmer for about 10 minutes.
Using an immersion blender, blend until completely smooth and creamy. You can also carefully blend the soup in batches using a countertop blender.
Stir in the half-and-half or cream, starting with ¼ cup and adding more if you prefer a richer soup. Add a tiny pinch of nutmeg, if desired, and taste for seasoning.
Warm gently before serving. If the soup becomes thicker than you like, simply add another splash of broth.
Make It Extra Cozy
Top each bowl with cracked black pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and a few crispy sage leaves. For a little crunch, add toasted pumpkin seeds or homemade sourdough croutons.
Sunnyside Up Tip: Have a loaf of sourdough that’s beginning to get a little stale? Don’t toss it! Cube it, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and a little dried thyme, then bake at 375°F until golden and crisp. They make the perfect croutons for this soup.