The Best Acorn Squash Soup From Guy Fieri

Acorn squash soup is a perfect fall meal that combines the sweetness of squash with savory spices, olive oil, butter, and cream for an elegant dish.

Serves: 8-10 Time: 2 hours 40 minutes Cookbook: Guy’s Big Bite

As soon as the beautiful oranges, reds, and yellows of fall arrive, we eagerly expect all sorts of fall produce to show up in our local grocery stores. We’re talking about classics like pumpkins, apples, and pears, but also less-anticipated favorites like persimmons, butternut, and acorn squash.

Today, we’re featuring a delicious creamy soup that uses acorn squashes, a squash variety that tastes similar to the sweet flavors of butternut squash soup or a savory pumpkin soup. And the master who will lead us through today’s recipe is Food Network star and host of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives: Guy Fieri. Far from any greasy spoon restaurant, however, this elegant soup is fit to serve at any holiday get-together or special dinner when you want to impress!

Guy’s acorn squash soup recipe is simple, elegant, delicious, and surprisingly easy to make. Let’s get cooking!

Jump Ahead:

• ❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• 🍲 Ingredients Needed to Make Acorn Squash Soup
• 🍴 Equipment You’ll Need in the Kitchen
• 🥄 How to Make Guy Fieri’s Acorn Squash Soup
• ♾️ Variations on Acorn Squash Soup
• ❓ Guy Fieri’s Acorn Squash Soup: Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Comforting: This roasted acorn squash soup is unbelievably comforting, warm, delicious, and hearty. It will wrap you in a warm hug all through dinnertime.

Savory: Acorn squash is on the sweeter, nutty side, but this turns out incredibly savory and layered with flavor. It’s a great soup that can easily be the star of any delicious meal you serve.

Holiday Ready: If you need a soup recipe for a holiday meal, look no further. This soup is beautifully elegant, the flavors are layered and complex, and it will leave your guests asking for seconds even before they’ve finished their first bowl.

Ingredients Needed to Make Acorn Squash Soup

• Acorn Squash: You want three deep green acorn squash for this recipe. Butternut squash can substitute if you can’t find acorn squash in the grocery store.
• Shallots: Shallots are a milder, sweeter onion that works beautifully in this dish. However, if you can’t get any shallots, a yellow onion will work just as well.
• Garlic Cloves: You’ll be roasting garlic, so whole cloves are needed. However, if you only have garlic powder on hand, you can mix it in, in a pinch.
• Olive Oil: Use extra virgin olive oil for the flavor it contributes to this soup.
• Butter: Use unsalted butter, as you’ll add in the correct amount of salt separately.
• Salt: You’ll want coarse salt like sea or kosher salt for this recipe.
• Black Pepper: Black pepper lends a classic flavor to this soup that you wouldn’t want to be without. Freshly cracked pepper is ideal if you have it.
• Chicken Broth: Chicken broth or chicken stock both work well for this recipe.
• Cayenne: Cayenne pepper provides a very subtle kick to the flavor profile of this soup. It won’t make the soup too spicy, but you’d miss it if it was left out.
• White Pepper: White pepper is spicier than black pepper and adds another layer of flavor. If you don’t have any, you can omit it without issue.
• Sage: Sage is a deeply earthy herb that will add richness to this soup. Rosemary can be used as a substitute.
• Savory: Savory is an herb grown in southern France. If you can’t find any in your grocery store, Thyme is a perfect substitute and is what we used in this recipe.
• Heavy Cream: Heavy cream adds to the richness of the soup. You can also use half-and-half, sour cream, or milk if you’re trying to keep it a bit healthier.
• Worcestershire Sauce: This sauce gives dishes a boost of “umami” flavor – that flavor that makes you go “mmmm!”
• Parmesean: This cheese adds an intensely rich flavor to the soup. Get the real thing – actual parm in a wedge or pre-shredded – but not powdered “parm” if at all possible.

Equipment Needed In the Kitchen

Immersion Blender

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Dutch Oven

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Rimmed Sheet Pan

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• Immersion Blender: An immersion blender allows you to blend food without transferring it to a blender or food processor. It’s super handy for soups! That said, you can use a regular blender or food processor in a pinch if that’s what you’ve got.
• Dutch Oven: A dutch oven is perfect for making this soup, but any large pot that is 3+ quarts will work just fine. Even a large saucepan could be used in a pinch if you had to.
• Rimmed Baking Sheet: A rimmed baking sheet is perfect for roasting your squash.

How to Make Guy Fieri’s Acorn Squash Soup

This requires a few steps and a bit of planning for time management, but the end product is so well worth it!

Prep the acorn squash

First up, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

While the oven preheats, it’s time to prep the acorn squash. Start by cutting a slice off of the top and bottom of the squash. Then, cut the squash horizontally along the middle so you have two halves that can sit on the cut ends.

Scoop out the seeds and save them – they can be roasted just like pumpkin seeds!

Roast the acorn squash

Get out a rimmed baking sheet and line it with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Then, place each squash half on the sheet so it sits on the cut side and the scooped-out middle faces up.

Add two peeled garlic cloves to three of the squash halves, and add one peeled shallot to the other three halves. Drizzle the halves with two tablespoons of olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and cracked pepper.

Place the acorn halves into the preheated oven and roast for around 1 hour. Toward the end of the roasting time, the flesh should be incredibly tender and your house should smell like a wonderland of roasting squash, onion, and garlic.

Once they’ve roasted for an hour or so, pull them back out of the oven, and let them cool for around 20-30 minutes, until you can handle the cooked flesh easily.

When the squash halves are cool enough to handle, scoop flesh from the shells or peel away the skin until all the skin is removed. Place the squash flesh in a bowl to the side.

Save the roasted garlic and shallots and put them with the scooped-out acorn squash flesh.

Side quest: While the squash roasts or cools, peel and dice the remaining shallots.

Make the soup

Next, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter to a dutch oven and place over medium-high heat. Let the butter and oil begin foaming before adding the raw diced shallots.

Caramelize the shallots by cooking them in the butter for 5 minutes. The bottom of the pot will start to get bits of caramelization stuck to the bottom and that’s okay!

Once the shallots have caramelized, add in 1/2 cup of chicken stock and stir with a silicon spatula. The brown bits will lift right off the bottom of the pan and add to the great flavor of this soup.

Now, set the stove to medium heat and add the acorn squash, roasted shallots and garlic, the remainder of the chicken stock, and your spices. Stir to combine, then pull out your immersion blender.

Stick the immersion blender into the pot so the blender’s bottom is fully submerged in the soup before turning it on. Then, blend away until the entire soup becomes nice and creamy.

Note: Using an immersion blender is the best way to get a creamy texture. If you don’t have one, you can get the same effect with a regular blender or food processor. Simply scoop out all of the soup ingredients and blend on high until the soup is pureed and creamy.

Finish the soup

At this point you have some very creamy acorn squash soup. To finish it off, stir in the cream and Worcestershire until fully combined.

Bring the soup up to a simmer on medium-low heat, then stir in 1/4 cup of parmesan until fully incorporated.

When ready to serve, ladle into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle a bit of crushed pepper and shredded parm on top. If you want a little sweet kick, drizzle maple syrup instead of olive oil!

Variations on Acorn Squash Soup

This soup is incredible as-is, but if you want to change up the flavor profiles, here are a few things you can do.

Extra Cheesy Acorn Squash Soup: Double or triple the amount of parmesan that the recipe calls for to turn the soup into a delicious cheesy bowl of happiness.

Loaded Acorn Squash Soup: Add a 1/4 cup of bacon bits and a 1/4 cup of sauteed mushrooms to make it delightfully heart and flavor-packed.

Spicy Acorn Squash Soup: Increase the cayenne to 1/2 or even 1 teaspoon, depending on how hot you like your food. Start small and taste as you go.

Spiced Up Acorn Squash Soup: Experiment with the spice profile for your soup. Curry powder and ground ginger both pair well with acorn squash. Start with a 1/4 teaspoon and taste as you go.

Guy Fieri’s Acorn Squash Soup: Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

More Soups for the Soul

Here are some of our all-time favorite soups featured on Cook Like a Master!

• Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup: A hearty, flavor-packed bowl of goodness perfect for any cold day.
• Sausage Corn Chowder: A delightful soup with a wonderful mixture of savory sausage, hearty potato, and creamy corn.
• Old Fashioned Ham and Bean Soup: You can’t get much more classic than an old-fashioned ham and bean soup for a fall or winter meal.

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