Butternut Squash And Chickpea Soup

This simple butternut squash and chickpea soup is packed with spices for amazing flavour and has added kale for an extra boost of healthy green goodness. It’s all about store cupboard basics and a perfect winter warmer that is low in calories and super healthy too.

What’s to love about this soup recipe

• This butternut squash soup is super easy to make which is always a winner in my book
• Make full use of what’s available right now and kale and squash are always in supermarkets in autumn/fall and right through the winter too
• This is a seriously healthy soup that’s packed with goodness but low in claories and really fills you up too.
• Real fast food – this butternut squash soup comes together in about half an hour.

My butternut squash and chickpea soup has the added green goodness of kale, in fact this is almost a vegetarian stew rather than a soup, it really is a meal in itself.

Ingredients for butternut squash and chickpea soup

As I’ve said, this is a real storecupboard soup as all the basics like the red lentils, chickpeas, onion, carrot and garlic will no doubt be lurking around your kitchen already.

From the spice cupboard you’ll need some ground cumin and coriander plus your usual salt and pepper.

You’ll also need stock. Stock cubes are fine here or use your own homemade chicken or vegetable stock.

Your other ingredients for this soup are kale and butternut squash and the juice of half a lemon.

Butternut squash

This is a great veggie to have on hand. It is inexpensive to buy and will keep for a couple of months in a cool cupboard. You can use butternut squash in place of pumpkin in recipes and can make everything from curries to soups and stews. Plus, of course serving butternut squash as a side vegetable in its own right.

Alternative ingredients

Feel free to use pumpkin instead of butternut squash for this soup recipe.

If you don’t have any red lentils to hand you can easily omit them and just use the chickpeas.

You can use cavolo nero (Tuscan dinosaur kale) instead of standard kale or even spring greens to add the green goodness to this butternut and squash soup recipe.

Where I have used both cumin and coriander to flavour my butternut squash soup you can always use curry powder instead.

Notes on chickpeas

If you are using dried chickpeas remember they have to be soaked and cooked first. Chickpeas from a jar are often far better than those in a can so look out for these jars in Lidl, especially where they are often on offer from Spain.

When using the chickpeas drain off the water (known as Aqua Faba) first. You can use this to make vegan meringues as it is a great substitute for egg whites. Aqua Faba freezes well so you can just pop it into a zip lock bag in the freezer to use at a later date.

How to make squash and chickpea soup

This delicious soup really is super easy to make and quick too.

It is simply a case of sauteing the onions with the spices for a few minutes then adding the garlic for a minute. Now chuck in the chopped carrot and butternut squash plus the lentils, chickpeas and stock.

Let this simmer for 25 minutes then toss in the kale and add a dash of lemon juice, season to taste and cook for a final 5 minutes.

Kale notes

Make sure to cut out the thick ribs on the kale then roughly chop the leaves for your soup.

Serving suggestions

I like to serve this squash and chickpea soup with some simple Greek yogurt (here’s how to make your own homemade Greek style yogurt) and some chopped spring onions.

I like my soup chunky but you can always blend this soup if you want it to be a smooth squash soup.

Some toasted chickpeas also make a nice topper for the soup or simply a swirl of olive oil.

How many does this serve

You’ll get 4 servings of butternut squash and chickpea soup from this recipe.

Storage

Your squash soup will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days and you can freeze it for up to 6 months.

Looking for more delicious soup recipes? Then check these out before you go;

Traditional Scotch broth with kale pistou (+Video!)

Rich and creamy garlic mushroom soup

Curried cauliflower soup with kale crisps

Roasted eggplant/aubergine soup

Or just check out my Soup Section for lots of great soupy inspiration!

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.