Roasted butternut squash soup with a little cashew milk
This version uses ½ cup cashew milk, ¼ teaspoon fine salt, ⅛ teaspoon MSG, and just ½ teaspoon cider vinegar for the entire pot. It keeps Love & Lemons’ squash, onion, garlic, sage, rosemary, ginger, and total olive oil amounts; roasting replaces the initial squash sauté and most of the simmering.
Source recipe: Love & Lemons — Butternut Squash Soup
Time: Allow about 55–65 minutes, including roughly 20 minutes of hands-on work. This is an estimate for the adapted method.
Servings: Six equal portions by finished weight, at approximately 150 calories each using the ingredient weights below. The exact grams per portion depend on evaporation and how much broth you use; the weighing method is below.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Butternut squash | 2½ lb / 1,134 g after peeling and removing the seeds, weighed before cooking, cut into roughly 1-inch cubes |
| Extra-virgin olive oil | 2 tablespoons / 27 g total, divided between roasting and sautéing |
| Yellow onion | 1 large, about 200 g after peeling, chopped |
| Garlic | 3 cloves, about 9 g peeled, chopped |
| Fresh sage | 1 tablespoon, chopped |
| Fresh rosemary | 1½ teaspoons, finely minced; discard woody stems |
| Fresh ginger | 1 teaspoon, grated |
| Low-sodium vegetable broth | 2½ cups / 600 mL initially, plus up to 1 cup / 240 mL for thinning |
| Plain, unsweetened cashew milk | ½ cup / 120 mL, shaken well; not vanilla |
| Fine sea salt or fine table salt | ¼ teaspoon, approximately 1.5 g |
| Freshly ground black pepper | About ¼ teaspoon, or several grinds |
| Plain MSG | ⅛ teaspoon, approximately 0.5 g |
| Apple-cider vinegar | ½ teaspoon / 2.5 mL, preferably standard 5% acidity |
| Optional garnish | A little chopped parsley; pepitas and bread are optional and not included in the calorie calculation |
Squash-weight clarification: Love & Lemons specifies a roughly 3-pound whole squash. Its recipe developer confirms that approximately 2½ pounds of prepared squash works. Weighing the flesh avoids counting discarded skin and seeds as food. (Source recipe)
For the broth, Pacific Foods Low Sodium Organic Vegetable Broth is a suitable reference: its label lists 10 calories and 120 mg sodium per 240 mL. For the cashew milk, the calculation uses Silk Unsweet Cashewmilk, with 25 calories and 150 mg sodium per 240 mL. Equivalent products are fine; use their package labels when they differ. (Pacific Foods; Silk)
Instructions
1. Roast the squash
Heat the oven to 400°F / 205°C. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Use two sheets if needed to give the cubes some space.
Toss the prepared squash thoroughly with 1 tablespoon of the measured olive oil. Spread it in one layer. Do not add extra oil or salt beyond the ingredient list.
Roast for 30–40 minutes, turning the cubes around halfway through. Start checking at 30 minutes: the edges should be golden brown, and a fork should slide easily through the centers. Continue a little longer if necessary. This follows Love & Lemons’ separate roasting method, with a little flexibility in timing for your oven and cube size. (Roasting method)
2. Soften the onion while the squash finishes roasting
When the squash has roughly 10 minutes left, warm the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
Add the onion, ¼ teaspoon salt, and black pepper. Stir occasionally for 5–8 minutes, until the onion is soft. Avoid letting it turn dark brown. If it is ready before the squash, take the pot off the heat temporarily.
3. Add the aromatics, squash, and broth
With the pot over medium heat, stir in the garlic, sage, rosemary, and ginger. Cook for 30–60 seconds, just until fragrant.
Add the roasted squash, scraping in any clinging oil, followed by 2½ cups / 600 mL broth. Bring to a gentle boil, cover, and lower the heat. Simmer for 5–10 minutes.
The squash is already cooked, so you do not need the original recipe’s longer simmer. Any pieces that are still firm should be allowed to soften fully before blending.
4. Blend with the cashew milk
Take the pot off the heat and let the soup cool slightly. Add the ½ cup / 120 mL cashew milk, then blend until completely smooth.
For a countertop blender, work in batches and follow its hot-liquid instructions, allowing steam to escape. Do not use a sealed smoothie cup for hot soup. An immersion blender also works; take enough time to eliminate small vegetable pieces.
Return the blended soup to the pot.
5. Adjust the thickness
Stir in the reserved broth ¼ cup / 60 mL at a time, using up to the full additional cup.
Stop when the soup pours easily but still coats a spoon. You do not have to use all the reserved broth. The total liquid will be 3–4 cups, including the cashew milk—not 3–4 cups of broth plus the milk.
Warm gently as needed.
6. Add the tiny finishing seasonings
Stir in ⅛ teaspoon MSG until dissolved. Turn off the heat, then stir in ½ teaspoon apple-cider vinegar.
Taste a spoonful after it has cooled enough to judge properly. These are deliberately restrained additions; do not automatically add more vinegar or MSG. Add another small pinch of salt only if the soup genuinely needs it.
Serve plain or with a little parsley. Any extra salt, oil, seeds, or bread should be counted separately.
Calories and serving size
Calculated estimate: approximately 900 calories for the entire pot, or 150 calories per sixth of the finished batch.
That calculation assumes the stated raw, edible ingredient weights, the two reference products, and all 3½ cups / 840 mL of broth. It counts the full olive oil amount rather than guessing how much might remain on the baking sheet.
| Ingredient | Calculation | Calories in the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Prepared raw squash | 1,134 g × 45 kcal/100 g | 510.3 |
| Peeled raw onion | 200 g × 40 kcal/100 g | 80.0 |
| Olive oil | 27 g × 884 kcal/100 g | 238.7 |
| Peeled raw garlic | 9 g × 149 kcal/100 g | 13.4 |
| Low-sodium broth | 840 mL × 10 kcal/240 mL | 35.0 |
| Unsweetened cashew milk | 120 mL × 25 kcal/240 mL | 12.5 |
| Herbs, ginger, pepper, vinegar, and MSG | Small combined allowance, including up to 2 kcal for the MSG | ≈10 |
| Salt | No calories | 0 |
| Total | ≈900 | |
| One-sixth of the batch | 900 ÷ 6 | ≈150 |
The squash, onion, oil, and garlic figures use USDA Standard Reference data reproduced by MyFoodData; the liquid figures come from the manufacturers’ labels. The small-seasoning allowance avoids pretending that spoonfuls of fresh herbs have precisely known weights. (MyFoodData — raw butternut squash; Pacific Foods; Silk)
Using only the initial 2½ cups of broth reduces the total to approximately 890 calories, or 148 calories per sixth. That difference is small enough that 150 per sixth remains a sensible logging estimate.
What exactly is one serving?
One serving is one-sixth of the finished soup’s weight, excluding the pot. It is not automatically one cup or a fixed number of grams.
After blending and making the final liquid adjustment, weigh the soup in a tared container—or subtract the empty pot’s weight from the filled pot’s weight, provided your scale can safely handle it. Stir thoroughly, then divide the net weight by six.
For example:
| Your measured finished batch | Weight of one serving | Calories per serving | Calories per 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,800 g | 300 g | ≈150 | ≈50 |
| 2,000 g | 333 g | ≈150 | ≈45 |
| 2,100 g | 350 g | ≈150 | ≈43 |
These are examples, not promised yields. Defining servings this way accounts for the water lost during roasting and simmering without requiring you to dilute the soup to an arbitrary target weight.
For a bowl of any size:
Bowl calories ≈ 900 × bowl weight in grams ÷ finished batch weight in grams.
So, if the finished soup weighs 2,000 g, a 400 g bowl is approximately 180 calories.
The arithmetic is reproducible, but the result is still a food-composition estimate: squash naturally varies, and package labels are rounded. About 150 calories per sixth of this measured-ingredient batch is the useful number—not a claim of laboratory precision.
Sodium
With the reference broth and milk, 1.5 g salt, and 0.5 g MSG, the calculated estimate is approximately 200 mg sodium per sixth of the pot, before extra seasoning or toppings. The main contributions to the whole batch are about 420 mg from broth, 75 mg from cashew milk, 590 mg from salt, and 60 mg from MSG, plus the small amount naturally present in the vegetables. MSG contributes sodium; it is not sodium-free. (Pacific Foods; Silk)