Butternut squash... Anything with the name butter implies “deliciousness,” and this fall superfood is no exception. Versatile as it is tasty, you can try your hand at roasting, sautéing, toasting, and/or puréing butternut squash to add some tasty veggie goodness to your dinner table.
This squash’s delightful orange flesh isn’t just aesthetically pleasing, it’s also packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Perhaps that’s why, when the winter weather starts to creep in, butternut squash dishes – especially soups – take center stage.
Thanks to our friend and guest blogger, Cami Glosz of Veggies Then Wine fame, you can now saddle up to a bowl of body-warming, gut-health-supporting, creamy but vegan-friendly butternut squash soup! ( )
Is Butternut Squash Healthy?
The short answer is a resounding, “Yes!” According to healthline.com, one cup (205 grams) of cooked butternut squash provides (1Trusted Source):
- Calories: 82
- Carbs: 22 grams
- Protein: 2 grams
- Fiber: 7 grams
- Vitamin A: 457% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI)
- Vitamin C: 52% of the RDI
- Vitamin E: 13% of the RDI
- Thiamine (B1): 10% of the RDI
- Niacin (B3): 10% of the RDI
- Pyridoxine (B6): 13% of the RDI
- Folate (B9): 10% of the RDI
- Magnesium: 15% of the RDI
- Potassium: 17% of the RDI
- Manganese: 18% of the RDI
While butternut squash may be a low calorie treat, it’s loaded with important nutrients important for good health.
To boot, butternut squash is an abundant source of antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene. At Just Thrive, we LOVE antioxidants because they help
scavenge and remove free radicals, protecting cells from damage.
Hot Soup + Probiotics?
The only thing that’s better than a hot bowl of soup on a cold day is knowing that the soup is giving your gut the support it needs to encourage optimal digestive and immune health. What’s amazing about this butternut squash soup recipe is that it contains the power of our award-winning probiotic!
But if you’re feeling hesitant about adding Just Thrive to this recipe for fear of losing our product’s epic effectiveness, fear not! Unlike most probiotics on the market, you can add our probiotic strains to just about anything!!
The Just Thrive spore-based probiotic is tasteless, odorless, and mixes perfectly into 99.99% of recipes.
Yes, even if you throw it in an oven at 425 degree heat...
Our spore probiotic strains are wholly unique and amazingly resilient.
And that’s no exaggeration. See below:
Example #1:
👉 Super Strain Bacillus Subtilis HU58
This strain is so resilient that researchers at California Polytechnic State University reported reviving Bacillus spores from the gut of a 25-million-year-old bee that was fossilized in amber!
Example #2:
👉 Super Strain Bacillus Clausii
This is THE ONLY probiotic strain that can maintain effectiveness when taken with antibiotics! Bacillus Clausii is shown to resist damage from a variety of common antibiotics to help recondition your gut with the healthy bacteria it needs.
So add our probiotic to something hot, or something cold... Swallow it, eat it, drink it… It doesn’t matter! Just make sure you and those you love get your daily dose so you can all be your best and healthiest selves!
And now, on to the recipe...
RECIPE
Ingredients: (Serves 3-4)
- 2 Just Thrive Probiotic capsules
- 2, 12-oz bags of pre-cut butternut squash
- 1 ¼ cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 2 medium shallot heads (to yield ¾ cup when diced)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Optional: 1 tablespoon vegan butter
- Optional: Chopped rosemary and pistachio hearts for topping
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Make sure all butternut squash cubes are cut into similar sizes. (for a butternut squash cutting hack, check out Whole Food’s excellent video here)
- In a large bowl, mix butternut squash cubes with 1 Tbsp olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.
- Spread butternut squash cubes onto a large baking sheet with parchment paper and roast for approximately 40-45 minutes, mixing halfway through, until the edges are starting to brown.
- Meanwhile, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large soup pot on medium heat.
- Add diced shallots and cook while stirring for approximately 5 minutes, then add the minced garlic and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Ensure garlic does not burn. Remove from heat.
- Add the cooked butternut squash, shallots, garlic, vegetable broth, coconut milk, and almond milk to a blender. (See notes)
- Once mixture is blended fully, add it back to the soup pot and stir in the salt, pepper, ground nutmeg, 1 Tbsp olive oil or vegan butter, and the contents from 2 Just Thrive probiotic capsules; warm the soup over medium heat until it’s steamy.
- For topping, add cracked black pepper, chopped rosemary, and pistachio hearts.
Notes: If you do not have a blender that can handle hot foods or a blender with a soup setting (i.e. Vitamix, KitchenAid), wait for the squash to cool down first before adding to the blender, or use a hand immersion blender. You may have to blend in batches, depending on the size of your blender.
Also – For more delicious recipe goodness, you can find Cami Glosz at her website, Veggies Then Wine or follow her foodie adventures on Instagram.
