This Hearty Butternut Squash Lentil Soup is a comforting, nutrient-dense superfood soup made with lentils, kale, and leeks.
Ready for the most convenient and comforting superfood soup? This Butternut Squash Lentil Soup tastes like a bowl of sunshine. It’s packed with beautiful, healthy, and colorful ingredients, and it tastes surprisingly more delicious than you’d imagine from the humble ingredients. The use of leeks brings complexity to the body of the soup. The only part of this superfood soup that takes a little time is chopping the veggies. You can use it to practice your knife skills – and we’ve listed some time savers below! Read on for the Butternut Squash Lentil Soup recipe.
Another good lentil soup? Curry lentil soup
How to make Butternut Squash Lentil Soup
This Butternut Squash Lentil Soup is packed with nutrient-dense foods like lentils, butternut squash, leeks, and chard. It’s also very, very tasty – it gets rave reviews from friends and family. In fact, it might rival our current favorite, Italian White Bean Soup. It’s perfect for a leisurely fall dinner or a warm lunch on a chilly afternoon.
The only time-consuming part of this soup recipe is the chopping. It requires quite a bit of veggies to cut: garlic, carrot, leeks, butternut squash, and kale. To save time, you can chop all the veggies ahead of time and refrigerate until the soup is ready: this could make a 30-minute meal. Another option is to use frozen diced butternut squash, which may save you some time.
Related: 12 Best Kale Recipes | 15 best lentil recipes
How to cut butternut squash
The hardest part of making this Butternut Squash Lentil Soup is cutting up the butternut squash! How do you cut butternut squash? Here’s what Alex and I do: Cut off the top of the pumpkin first, then the entire right neck of the pumpkin. Peel it and peel the round base. Cut the base in half and use a spoon to remove the seeds from each half. Cut the neck into strips and then into cubes. Do the same with the rounded bottom part of the squash: cut it into strips and then into cubes. Once you know how to cut butternut squash, it’s a breeze with this easy Butternut Squash Lentil Soup Recipe! Check out the video below to see us in action.
Video: How to cut butternut squash
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How to cut leeks
With the ecxeption of how to cut leeks! Slicing leeks can also be confusing. How to cut the leeks: First we cut the dark green stems of the leeks and the lower root, then we cut them in half lengthwise. Then we place each half-cut leek on the cutting board and slice it thinly, creating crescent shapes. Here’s the important part: Rinse the sliced leeks thoroughly in a colander to remove any dirt. Since leeks are roots, there is usually a lot of dirt in the tuber part! Check out the video below to see us in action.
Video: How to cut leeks
Looking for more butternut squash recipes?
Butternut squash recipes are in the air! Aside from this Butternut Squash Lentil Soup recipe, here are some of our favorite butternut squash recipes:
Related: The Best Vegan Dinner Recipes | Quick Coconut Lentil Curry | How to cook lentils
This recipe is…
This Butternut Squash Lentil Soup recipe is vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, and gluten-free.
Related: For this recipe, try our homemade vegetable broth!
The description
This Hearty Butternut Squash Lentil Soup is a comforting, nutrient-dense superfood soup made with lentils, kale, and leeks.
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 3 carrots
- 3 large leek or 1 large yellow onion (or a combination; 1 leek and 1 yellow onion works well)
- 1 medium butternut squash (4 at 5 diced cups; Use frozen cubes to save time)
- 1 Bunch of Tuscan cabbage or Swiss chard
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 cups Vegetable broth (we have 6 cups broth and 2 water)
- 1 ½ cups brown or green lentils
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Ground fresh pepper
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
- Chop the garlic. Peel carrots and cut into crescents.
- Chop the leek (watch the video!): Cut off the dark green stalks and lower roots, then cut in half lengthways. Place each leek, half the cut side down, on the cutting board, then slice into thin crescents. Rinse thoroughly in a colander to remove dirt.
- Chop butternut squash (watch the video!): Cut the neck off the squash and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Peel the base. Halve the bottom and scrape out the seeds. Cut the neck into thin rectangles, then into long slices. Turn the slices over and cut into cubes. Slice the broth thinly, then cut into small squares.
- Wash and chop the kale (watch the video!). You can also wait with this step while the soup simmers in step 6.
- In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil; Add the leeks or onions and sauté until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add the carrots and garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes until tender.
- Add pumpkin, vegetable broth, lentils, thyme, oregano, and kosher salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils and butternut squash are tender (to taste), about 20 minutes. In the last few minutes, add the chopped Swiss chard and simmer until tender. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Stir in lemon juice if you like.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Cook
- Kitchen: American
Keywords: Butternut Squash Lentil Soup
