Last Updated on January 27, 2018 by Fiona Maclean
Diet Soup Recipe – Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato:
It is definitely soup season again. Any regular reader may have noticed that I am not the most patient of cooks. While I prefer to cook from scratch, I am quite prepared to take shortcuts. And, although I would always recommend buying your vegetables ‘whole’, sometimes those little peeled and pre-diced packs look too useful to ignore. On the downside, I know that the minute you peel and dice vegetables they start to age faster and lose vital nutrients. So if you are tempted to cheat occasionally then make sure you use whatever veg you buy very quickly. Especially if you are dieting. Remember that if you are reducing the total quantity of food you eat, then if you continue eating like-for-like you will also be reducing the vitamins and minerals you are eating.
Butternut squash is one of those vegetables that is just hard work to peel and dice so the 350g bag of mixed squash and sweet potato to make this low-calorie diet soup felt like a perfectly valid cheat to me.
Dietary Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian
- 350 g Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato I used a pre-prepared vegetable bag - 50% of each
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Cream
- 20 g Fresh Ginger Peeled
- 1 Small Banana Shallot Peeled
- 750 ml Hot Vegetable Stock
- 1 Handful Fresh Coriander
- Salt and pepper to taste
-
Roast the butternut squash, sweet potato, ginger and shallot in a low oven at 160C for 30-40 minutes till soft
-
Put the ginger, butternut squash, sweet potato and shallot into your blender and blend until you have a puree. Or tip them into a saucepan and add half the stock to help blend the mixture with a stick blender
-
Add the hot stock and coconut milk and continue to blend on full power until the mixture is velvety smooth. If you are using a jug blender, tip everything into a saucepan. Heat through until piping hot. If the mixture is too thick add hot water till you get something the consistency of single cream
-
Add most of the coriander, reserving a few leaves for garnish. Blend for a further 30 seconds. If you are using a conventional blender you will need to chop the coriander finely to avoid having to return the mixture from a saucepan to the blender. Taste and season with salt and pepper as required.
-
Serve garnished with fresh coriander and if you like, a drizzle of coconut cream
This time I decided to TIME my soup making. I was a little disappointed with the first soup I made in the froothie because it didn’t heat up as much as I’d hoped. But, as I mentioned, patience is not a strong point of mine…
Putting the timer on for 7 minutes resulted in a piping hot, velvety textured soup. Enough for three greedy dishes or four smaller ones, the calorie count per bowl will depend on your portion size. The only fat comes from the coconut cream so you can indulge in a good bowlful for around 70 calories (the squash and sweet potato mix is just 40cals per 100g making the entire pack 140 calories while a tablespoon of coconut cream is 50 calories. So a large bowl of soup would be around 80 calories and if you manage to stretch the soup to feed four people you can cut that to 60 calories.
Thinking of making this recipe yourself? Why not pin the post for later
Still looking for a soup recipe on your diet – my Low Calorie Celery Soup is really low in calories and high in taste. Or for something different, try this Diet Spinach and Lentil Soup. And, who wouldn’t be happy with a big bowl of Low Calorie Cream of Tomato Soup for a diet Lunch
I never thought of using ginger in butternut squash soup! Genius!
Oh this soup looks and sounds lovely! Will definitely be giving this a go at the weekend!
Thanks for this recipe it looks delicious – I love butternut squash
sounds lovely, especially as it’s so low in fat and calories.
I am intrigued by the idea of putting banana in the soup. I might just have to try this!
I’m always one for trying to find short cuts and cheat to make it quicker and easier, Pre-Prepared veg is great.
Me and my daughter love butternut squash soup
Butternut Squash is my absolute favourite soup. The addition of ginger sounds great to give it a kick.
Your recipes are great Fiona, but they don’t say how many calories are in them.
actually most of the low calorie ones do. I’m not sure why this one is missing.
I’ve never had the pleasure of butternut squash – it sounds lovely.
Mmm, one of my favorite foods ever! I routinely make this every week, all winter long:-)
This sounds fabulous, we tend to just have roasted butternut squash but this is a fab idea for us for the winter.
Great combination will have to give this a try.
This sounds absolutely delicious – I would have though that it would have been much higher in calories, so I’m sure it will feel like you are having something full of calories, when in fact it is reasonably healthy.
Amazing
That looks smooth and gorgeous!
This doesn’t seem like ‘diet’ food at all!! Looks divine!!
Very cool way to make soup! It looks quite healthy and delicious as well! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
That’s an impressively easy soup to make in a blender and such a clever way to make a soup! I’m very intrigued by ‘frothies’, sound like a great bit of kit.
This soup has all my favs in one delish bowl. Stumbled.
thanks for this recipe it looks nice and easy and I love ginger so will definitely give this a try
This looks divine Fiona. You come up with the best recipes!
Ooooh nice! Butternut squash and sweet potato soup is a firm family favourite – I do like the thai style twist to this one though. And to make you jealous – I have a vegetable peeler that peels a squash in seconds! (It was my cousins that I persuaded her to giving me lol)
I am ready for these fall flavors..the ginger sets it off. I will have this next week.