Butternut Squash Lentil Soup with Kale

This hearty butternut squash lentil soup is a comforting and nutrient dense superfood soup, featuring lentils, kale, and leeks.

Ready for the coziest, most comforting superfood soup? This butternut squash lentil soup tastes like a bowl of sunshine. It’s chock full of beautiful, colorful healthy ingredients, and it tastes surprisingly more delicious than you’d imagine from the humble ingredients. Using leeks brings a complexity to the body of the soup. The only part about this superfood soup that requires some time is chopping the vegetables. You can use that to practice your knife skills — and we’ve listed some time savers below! Keep reading for the butternut squash lentil soup recipe.

Related: Best Vegan Dinner Recipes

How to make butternut squash lentil soup

This butternut squash lentil soup is filled with nutrient-rich foods like lentils, butternut squash, leeks, and chard. It’s also very, very tasty — it got rave reviews from friends and family alike. In fact, it just might rival our current favorite, Italian White Bean Soup. The only time consuming part of this soup recipe is the chopping. It requires quite a bit of vegetable chopping: garlic, carrot, leek, butternut squash, and kale. As a time saver, you could chop all the veggies in advance and refrigerate until making the soup: this could make it a 30 minute meal. Another option is to use frozen cubed butternut squash, which can shave off quite a bit of 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 the butternut squash! How to cut butternut squash? Here’s what Alex and I do: First, slice off top of the squash, then the entire straight neck of the squash. Peel it and peel the round base. Cut the base in half and remove the seeds from each half with a spoon. Slice the neck into strips and then cubes. Then do the same with the rounded bottom part of the squash: slice it into strips and then cubes. Once you know how to cut butternut squash, it’s a breeze to this easy butternut squash lentil soup recipe! See the video below to watch us in action.

Video: How to cut butternut squash

How to cut leeks

Except…for how to cut leeks! Cutting leeks can also be a source of confusion. Here’s how we cut leeks: first, we chop off the dark green stems of the leeks and the bottom root, then slice them in half length-wise. Then we place each leek half cut-side down on the cutting board and chop it into thin slices, resulting in half-moon shapes. Here’s the important part: rinse the sliced leeks thoroughly in a colander to remove any dirt. Because leeks are roots, there’s typically a lot of dirt in the bulb portion! See the video below to watch us in action.

Video: How to cut leeks

Looking for more butternut squash recipes? 

Butternut squash recipes are in the air! Outside of this butternut squash lentil soup recipe, here are a few of our favorite butternut squash recipes:

• Za’atar-Spiced Butternut Squash Soup
• Baked Butternut Squash Chips
• Simple Butternut Squash Soup
• Indian-Spiced Butternut Squash Soup with Crispy Quinoa
• Roasted Butternut Squash with Pickled Onions

This recipe is…

This butternut squash lentil soup recipe is vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, and gluten-free.

Related: Try using our Homemade Vegetable Broth for this recipe!

Butternut Squash Lentil Soup

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(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 1)

5 from 4 reviews

• Author: a Couple Cooks
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 4 to 6 1x

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Description

This hearty butternut squash lentil soup is a comforting and nutrient dense superfood soup, featuring lentils, kale, and leeks.

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 carrots
• 3 large leeks or 1 large yellow onion (or a combination; 1 leek and 1 yellow onion works well)
• 1 medium butternut squash (4 to 5 cups diced; use frozen diced as a time saver)
• 1 bunch Tuscan kale or Swiss chard
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 cups vegetable stock (we used 6 cups broth and 2 water)
• 1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Fresh ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)

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Instructions

1. Mince the garlic. Peel and chop the carrots into half moons.
2. Chop the leeks (watch the video!): chop off the dark green stems and the bottom roots, then slice each in half length-wise. Place each leek half cut-side down on the cutting board, then chop it into thin half-moons. Rinse thoroughly in a colander to remove any dirt.
3. Chop the butternut squash (watch the video!): Slice off the neck of the squash and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Peel the base. Slice the base in half and scoop out the seeds. Slice the neck into thin rectangles, then into long slices. Turn the slices the other way and dice. Cut the base into thin slices and then dice into small squares. 
4. Wash and chop the kale (watch the video!). You can also wait to do this step while the soup simmers in Step 6.
5. In a large pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil; add the leeks or onions and sauté until softened, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add carrots and garlic and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes until softened.
6. Add the squash, vegetable broth, lentils, thyme, oregano, and kosher salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until the lentils and butternut squash are soft (taste test a few). In the last few minutes, add the chopped chard and simmer until tender. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. If desired, stir in the lemon juice. 

• Category: Soup
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: butternut squash lentil soup

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About the Authors

Sonja Overhiser

Cookbook Author and writer

Sonja Overhiser is author of Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best healthy cookbooks of 2018. She’s host of the food podcast Small Bites and founder of the food blog A Couple Cooks. Featured from the TODAY Show to Bon Appetit, Sonja seeks to inspire adventurous eating to make the world a better place one bite at a time.

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Alex Overhiser

Cookbook Author and photographer

Alex Overhiser is an acclaimed food photographer and author based in Indianapolis. He’s host of the food podcast Small Bites and founder of the recipe website A Couple Cooks. Featured from the TODAY Show to Bon Appetit, Alex is author of Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best vegetarian cookbooks by Epicurious.

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