The 3-Ingredient Fall Soup That Will Win Over Any Crowd

As much as we love seasonal sweet treats, fall food is so much more than just apple cider, pie, and pumpkin spice everything (which Americans spend a staggering amount of dough on). Case in point: Soup is one of fall's best savory seasonal delights, and butternut squash soup is possibly the most autumnal of them all. A creamy, flavor-packed, subtly sweet bowl of bright orange butternut squash bisque is basically fall on a spoon. Although recipes and variations abound, this seasonal squash soup is wonderfully straightforward at its core, consisting of just three fundamental ingredients: butternut squash, onions, and vegetable stock.

The basic formula for butternut squash soup is both straightforward and forgiving. First, roast the squash and onions together in the oven. Once your veggies are nicely cooked, blend them up and simmer them on the stove in a vegetable stock (which you can make with those leftover onion skins). And that's it! In just three steps and three ingredients, you have a comforting, vegan fall soup guaranteed to please. Serve it up with some crusty bread and a sprinkle of grated cheese or pumpkin seeds, and you're golden.

The beautiful simplicity of this three ingredient butternut squash soup formula means that it can easily be adapted and doctored up to meet a wide variety of culinary limitations, dietary needs, and personal tastes. If you don't have an oven or are short on time, you could cook the butternut squash in the microwave, but it may not have the same buttery, caramelized flavor achieved by oven roasting. Another option is to sauté the onion and squash in a pot until soft, add your stock, let the soup simmer for roughly half an hour, and then blend it up (this is one of the many soupy situations where an immersion blender comes in handy).

If you want a protein boost in your butternut squash soup, swap the vegetable stock for chicken stock. If you like a little kick, spice it up with curry powder and cinnamon à la Panera's best soup, which is only available seasonally. Blend in a bit of butter for an extra creamy twist, or keep it silky and dairy-free with a splash of plant milk. And, of course, autumnal herbs and spices like rosemary, sage, and ginger are always welcome additions. No matter how you slice, simmer, or spice it, this straightforward and comforting fall soup is a surefire crowd-pleaser.