Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque with Cinnamon Cashew Cream

Velvety and creamy beyond belief, this vibrant and savory-kind-of-sweet roasted butternut squash bisque brims with all those classic hearty flavors that you could want in a well-rounded winter soup: onion, garlic, ginger, and of course, toasty roasted butternut squash. And sitting atop this orange sea of smooth bisque, swirled elegantly around the inside of the bowl like a scrumptious Rorschach test (I see a man riding a camel under a palm tree) is a beautiful cinnamon cashew cream, an amazing compliment to this roasted butternut squash bisque and a unique way of elevating it to another plane of tastiness and delectability.

“All soup is soul food.”

– Bee Wilson

“Anyone who tells a lie has not pure heart, and cannot make a good soup.”

– Ludwig Van Beethoven

How & Why To Roast A Squash

Roasting just about any vegetable, though especially gourds, will bring about an amazing transformation in flavor, one that is usually sweeter, toastier and more full-bodied than the vegetable would have been otherwise raw.

And so, it makes sense that for this vegan butternut squash bisque, roasting the squash in the oven before blending it together with the other ingredients imparts all the lovely, transformative flavors of a roasted vegetable to the soup itself. So naturally, I’ll let you know how to do it best and most simply for this butternut squash bisque recipe.

It’s quite easy, roasting squash is.

1. Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds, and then quarter each half so that you have nice even segments.

2. Rub with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roast at 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) for about an hour.

And there you have it: a perfectly roasted butternut squash, ready for your roasted butternut squash bisque (once the skins are gently peeled off the roasted slices of squash, of course).

“There’s that old saying about ‘stirring the pot.” And I think that more times than not, we’d be wise just to make soup.”

– Craig D. Lounsbrough

Immersion for Full Immersion

One of the key qualities of a bisque is that signature smooth and velvety texture, coupled of course with an equally smooth and savory taste.

One way to achieve this smoothness of texture more easily than via traditional blender is to break out an immersion blender, if you have one.

After peeling the skins off the roasted butternut squash, plop them in the soup pot filled with the sautéed veggies and vegetable broth, and then take the immersion blender to the chunks of squash.

It may take awhile to completely breakdown the roasted squash into a smooth bisque using only an immersion blender, but it’s worth it. Not only is it easier than pouring the soup into a blender, but I feel that you have more control over the texture of the soup when using an immersion blender, since you get to choose where and how much to blend much more specifically.

Also, you do have the option of leaving some small chunks of squash in this butternut squash bisque recipe. It’s more of a personal preference. However, too many chunks, and it’ll quite possibly toe the line between bisque and ordinary soup, but it’s up to you.

Note too that it is wise to keep the head of the immersion blender below the line of liquid at all times. This ensures that the little spinning blade at the end of the hand-held blender will not fling orange soup everywhere in every which direction (not that I speak from personal experience, of course…).

“Change is the salt in the soup of life.”

– Gyles Brandreth

Cinnamon Cashew Cream: How To

Making cashew cream is easy.

Soak cashews –> Drain & combine with other ingredients –> Blend until smooth.

Now, there’s some debate about whether you need to soak cashews in warm water before blending them. Personally, I believe that if you don’t have a super powerful blender, then soaking cashews does help to create a smoother, creamier texture overall. If you do have a Vitamix or something of the sort, it’s probably not necessary.

My blender is an Oysterizer from the 1970’s, and is likely on its last legs given how much I use it, so I take it easy on the poor thing and soak the cashews in hot water for 30 minutes or so before blending them.

The twist on this cashew cream is the ground cinnamon, which not only adds a wonderful aroma to cream, but also works really well with the butternut squash flavor, too.

If you want, there is always the option of thinning this cashew cream even more by adding extra water to it. The benefit of thinning the cashew cream is that it’ll lay more beautifully atop your butternut squash bisque, albeit at the expense of being slightly less concentrated a flavor. It’s really your choice. This is especially helpful if you’re reusing cashew cream from the day before, and it’s sort of settled into a thicker paste; thin it out and dribble it more aesthetically across your orange soupy seascape.

“That bowl of soup – it was dearer than freedom, dearer than life itself, past, present, and future.”

– Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque Recipe

Truly, this is one of the most unctuous and comforting bisques around – done vegan, too! The color, the taste, the added embellishment of cinnamon cashew cream – all the different components of this dish come together into one gorgeous confluence of incredible flavor that’ll delight and dazzle your tastebuds.

So if you’re feeling for an incredible vegan butternut squash bisque recipe, then break out those immersion blenders, soak those cashews, and ready the soup bowls.

“Soup leaves us full because we believe it will.”

– Bee Wilson

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If you enjoyed this butternut squash bisque, leave me a recipe rating and comment before you go.

Also, this isn’t the only delectable soup that I’ve made. Check out my category Soups & Salads for more there.

May you have good food in good company,

That Vegan Nephew