Instant pot butternut squash soup is a cozy dinner which cooks in about 30 minutes! You’ll love this easy weeknight dinner full of the flavors of winter squash, apples, sage, and bourbon. Perfect for topping with croutons or dipping your bread into.
Hello, all!
Fall is here and so is a plethora of winter squash! I’ve been making recipes with pumpkin, sunshine squash, delicata, acorn squash and more since this is the time when winter squash are at their best and with the most choices to try.
One of my favorites (and one of the easiest to find year round) is butternut squash. Its firm texture, great flavor, and ease of peeling have me making soups, sautes, mashed, and roasted squash on a regular basis.
Fall is also my favorite time to pull out my pressure cooker since it’s so great at stews, soups, braises. Put winter squash and an Instant Pot together and what do you get? Butternut squash soup of course!
I tried a couple different concepts for the recipe, and realized that what I really needed was simple, creamy, and fall New England. Because that’s where I’m at!
Why Make This Recipe?
- It’s an easy add and go recipe. You do have to do some chopping, but once that’s done, it’s just a matter of putting it all in the pressure cooker, starting it, and walking away.
- It’s FULL of fall flavors! Winter squash, apples, bourbon, and sage. All of these flavors say fall to me.
- It’s a great vegetarian dinner. This soup is perfect for anyone wanting to center veggies in their meals. The soup is filling and hearty and would be lovely with a simple green salad.
- It’s an excellent excuse to enjoy fried sage. (Because fried sage is amazing!) Okay, you can have fried sage anytime, but I know I’m more likely to make it when I have a reason and this soup is the only reason you need.
What do you need?
- Butternut Squash – Either peel and dice yourself (it’s pretty simple!) or buy precut.
- Apple – Any eating apple which isn’t too sour will be great.
- Onions/Garlic – The basis of flavor.
- Herbs – Sage is amazing with winter squash!
- Bourbon/Cream – A little of each brings the final product to WOW.
How make this
To make instant pot butternut squash soup, add diced butternut squash, apples, onions, sage, stock, and spices to your electric pressure cooker. Cook under pressure for 10 minutes, then open it up, puree and add bourbon and cream.
- Chop all the soup ingredients and add them to the pressure cooker.
- Add stock and spices.
- Set the cooker for 10 minutes, seal the top, and walk away.
- Once the cooker is done, hit the quick release.
- Open the top and puree the soup.
- Add the cream and bourbon and let simmer on the saute function for a few minutes.
- Serve with fried sage and croutons.
Can you freeze it?
If you want to freeze it, you need to skip the cream. Cream tends to separate and get grainy when frozen.
To freeze, puree it but don’t add the cream or bourbon. Transfer the soup to freezer packs and freeze for up to 2 months. When you defrost, add the cream and bourbon and simmer it all together.
As far as keeping it in the refrigerator, the soup will last 3-4 days if kept in a sealed container.
Can it be made vegan?
Definitely! Simple either omit the cream altogether or switch out the cream for coconut milk. All of the other ingredients in the soup are vegan.
More Pressure Cooker Recipes
Whether you have an Instant Pot or one of the other wonderful brands, you’ll love these recipes! Soups, braises, and a super easy risotto.
If you try my recipe for Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! And I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
You can connect with me by subscribing to my emails (see the form in the sidebar or below the recipe card), liking my FACEBOOK page, or by following me on PINTEREST.
– Happy cooking, Annemarie
Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
Soup
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
- 1 medium apple, peeled and diced
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 2 sprigs fresh sage, chopped, or 1 tsp dried sage
- 2 cups stock, low or no sodium
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp chipotle powder
- dash nutmeg
Mix-ins
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2-3 tbsp bourbon
Toppings
- fried sage
- croutons
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients for the soup to your pressure cooker. Stir to combine.
- Place the lid on the pressure cooker and lock into place.
- Select manual, high pressure and set the timer to 10 minutes. (Total cooking time will be about 20 minutes.)
- Once the cook time is over, press the quick release button.
- When all the pressure has been released, take off the lid and puree the soup in the pot using a stick blender (or transfer the soup to a standard blender and blend until smooth then pour it back in the pressure cooker).
- Switch the pressure cooker to saute and set the heat to medium.
- Add the cream and bourbon and bring the soup to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Serve with fried sage and croutons.
Notes
- Apples: Since the apple is going to be fully cooked and then pureed, you can use any crisp eating apple in the recipe. Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Gala, and Fuji are among the apple varieties I would recommend for the recipe.
- Stock: You can use either vegetable stock (for a vegetarian soup) or chicken stock for a meatless (but not vegetarian) recipe.
- Quick Release: To keep the steam from making a mess of your kitchen, place a kitchen towel over the vent when you hit the quick release. Leave it there until the pressure cooker done and you can open the lid.
- Stick blender: My favorite stick blender is the KitchenAid Blender. I use it all the time.
- Fried Sage: To make fried sage, cover the bottom of a small skillet with vegetable oil. Heat until the oil is shimmering then add the sage leaves. Cook them for about 30 seconds, or until the leaves are crisp. Quickly remove them to a towel lined plate and sprinkle with salt.
Liz says
Your recipe sounds great, and I’m dying to try it. Unless I missed it, the recipe doesn’t give the measurement for the squash in cups. The problem is that there are many sizes to butternut squash, and it would be helpful if you could give the amount of cups of squash needed. I have an eight pounder on my counter from our garden, and I don’t think I would need to use the whole thing.
justalittlebitofbacon says
You’re right – that’s a BIG one! I usually use a medium squash and that comes out to about 3 cups of cubes.