Roasted Honeynut Squash Tomato Soup

This honeynut squash tomato soup is a blend of sweet honeynut squash, roasted tomatoes, garlic, and onion, with a touch of heat from Calabrian chili, topped with crunchy homemade sourdough croutons and crispy sage.

This is the perfect soup to make when late summer tomatoes and winter squash are both at the market (a fun micro-season that hits around September/October).

Roasted Honeynut Squash Tomato Soup Ingredients

• Honeynut squash: Honeynut squash is a butternut squash and buttercup squash cross. It’s fairly small, has a sweet, nutty, almost caramel-like flavor when roasted, and is my favorite squash variety. That said, almost any type of roasted squash works well in this recipe, so use what you have on hand.
• Fresh Roma tomatoes or similar: Highly recommend using fresh late-summer tomatoes for this (Roma, or a similar variety works best); the flavor and sweetness shine through in the soup. Alternatively, you can use canned San Marzano tomatoes once tomato season is officially over – use one 28 oz can total. You will need to add additional water.
• Sweet white onions: I used Vidalia sweet onions, but any sweet onion variety will work here. Sweet onions have a milder, less pungent flavor and contain more sugar than white or yellow onions, making them perfect for caramelizing.
• Garlic bulb: Yes, you need an entire bulb of garlic.
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Tomato paste
• Coconut sugar: Swap this out for light brown sugar.
• Calabrian chili pepper, dried: If you need to substitute the dried Calabrian chili, swap for Aleppo pepper or Silk chili. Alternatively, use 1 tsp fresh chopped Calabrian chili pepper.
• Milk or non-dairy milk: Used my homemade house-blend milk to keep this dairy-free.
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• Sourdough bread: This is for the croutons, which are optional, but highly recommended!
• Sage

Visual Guide to This Honeynut Squash Tomato Soup + Notes

Roast the tomatoes, squash, and aromatics

Preheat the oven to 450°F (or 475°F convection), line two quarter sheet pans with parchment paper, and set aside. Add the tomatoes to one of the sheet pans, drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, and toss to coat. Turn the tomatoes face-down on the pan, and set aside. Add the onions and garlic to the other sheet pan, drizzle generously with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, and toss to coat. Nestle the halved honeynut squash into the pan with the onions, face-down. Roast the tomatoes for 25-30 minutes until the skins wrinkle and are beginning to char; they’ll release a lot of water. Let the tomatoes cool on the counter for 15 minutes, then remove the skins with your fingers and discard. Roast the squash and aromatics until the squash is soft, and the onions are beginning to char slightly.

NOTE; I like roasting the tomatoes separately from the squash and aromatics (onion and garlic); they release a fair amount of water as they cook, which inhibits the squash and onions from caramelizing.

Fry off the tomato paste

To a large pot (I used a 4 QT pot), add the olive oil and tomato paste. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the tomato paste darkens, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle in the sugar and Calabrian chili, sauté for an additional 1 minute, then turn off the heat.

NOTE; Frying off the tomato paste for a few minutes helps eliminate any raw acidic notes and caramelize the sugars, yielding a richer, more umami flavor.

Blend the soup

Dump the fried tomato paste mixture and roasted tomatoes, along with their juices, into a high-powered blender. Blend on high for 2 minutes and pour into the pot used for frying the tomato paste. Next, blend the squash, aromatics, and remaining ingredients. To the blender, add the roasted squash flesh, onions, squeeze the garlic out of the bulb and into the blender, along with the kosher salt, milk, and water. Blend on high for 2 minutes until creamy, then pour into the pot. Stir together well, taste, and adjust for salt.

NOTE: I like blending the soup in two batches: one batch for just the tomatoes, and the second batch for the squash, onions, garlic, water, and cream. My blender doesn’t have the capacity to blend everything together at once, and it’s a little easier logistically to blend the soup in batches.

Heat & Serve

Heat the soup over medium-low heat, covered, until warm. Taste and adjust for salt as needed. Serve topped with crunchy croutons, crispy sage, and optionally, grated parmesan.

Sourdough Croutons

Preheat the oven to 400°F (425° convection) and line a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper. Tear the sourdough slices into bite-size pieces and dump onto the prepared pan. Drizzle generously with olive oil and a large pinch of kosher salt, and toss to coat the bread. Spread out evenly in the pan and bake for 10-15 minutes, tossing 2-3 times, until the croutons are golden-brown and crisp. The croutons are completely optional, but I love having them on the side with this soup!

Storing & Reheating

Recommend storing any leftovers in a jar – it makes it easier to store in the fridge and pour out. This soup thickens slightly as it sits, so you may need to add a splash of water when you reheat it.

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