Gordon Ramsay butternut squash soup is a spiced, creamy soup made with butternut squash, red lentils, coconut cream, fresh ginger, chilli and cumin, finished with a sizzling curry oil. It takes about 30 minutes and serves 4.
This recipe appears as Spiced Squash and Lentil Soup in Gordon Ramsay: Quick and Delicious, where he calls soup “the ultimate fast food” and says this one is “nourishing, warming and filling.” He adds that he “usually makes a double batch and freezes it for an even quicker meal down the line,” which tells you how highly he rates it.
The technique that separates this from every other butternut squash soup: he blends raw garlic, ginger and red chillies into a paste and cooks it out in butter before the squash goes in. That paste dissolves into the base and builds heat from the inside rather than sitting on top, so every spoonful tastes warm without any harsh raw bite.
Gordon Ramsay Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
Course: SoupsCuisine: American, BritishDifficulty: Easy4
15
minutes20
180
kcal35
From the Spiced Squash and Lentil Soup in Gordon Ramsay: Quick and Delicious. Red lentils thicken the soup naturally and add protein, while a finishing drizzle of curry oil with fresh curry leaves gives it a restaurant-level look and fragrance that most home versions skip entirely.
Ingredients
1 tbsp light olive oil
3 tbsp (40g) unsalted butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 inch (5cm) piece of fresh ginger, peeled
2 red chillies, deseeded for less heat
1 tsp mild curry powder
2 lbs (1kg) butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1/2 inch (1cm) cubes
5 cups (1.2 litres) chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/4 cups (250g) red lentils
1 cup (250ml) coconut cream
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Curry oil garnish:
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
Large handful of fresh curry leaves
1/2 tsp mild curry powder
1 red chilli, deseeded if preferred, finely sliced
Directions
- Cook the onion base: Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the diced onion and cumin seeds. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the onion starts to soften.
- Build the spice paste: While the onion cooks, put the garlic, ginger and chillies into a small food processor and blend to a smooth paste. Add this paste to the pan along with the curry powder and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring so nothing catches on the bottom.
- Simmer the squash and lentils: Add the cubed butternut squash and stock to the pan. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Add the red lentils and cook for 10 minutes. Whisk the coconut cream in a small bowl until smooth, set aside 6 tablespoons for the garnish, then add the rest to the pan. Continue cooking over high heat until the squash is completely soft and the lentils are cooked through.
- Make the curry oil: While the soup simmers, heat the olive oil for the garnish in a small frying pan. When hot, add the cumin seeds, curry leaves and curry powder. Stir well, then remove from the heat. The leaves will crackle and spit, so stand back.
- Blend and serve: Blitz the soup with a stick blender (immersion blender) until completely smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into warm bowls, drizzle over the reserved coconut cream and the curry oil, then scatter a few slices of red chilli on top.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay add red lentils to butternut squash soup?
Most butternut squash soup recipes rely on cream or butter to thicken the soup after blending. Ramsay adds 1 1/4 cups (250g) of red lentils instead, which dissolve completely during cooking and give the soup natural body.
The lentils do two jobs at once. They thicken the base without making it heavy, and they add protein that turns a starter into a proper meal. That’s why he calls it a “hearty meal-in-a-bowl” in Quick and Delicious rather than a light soup. If you enjoy the combination of lentils and warm spices, his lentil salad uses a similar flavour logic with a completely different texture.
Why coconut cream instead of double cream?
Coconut cream does something dairy cream can’t here. It carries the cumin, ginger and curry powder flavours in a way that amplifies them, because coconut fat binds to those spice compounds and distributes them evenly through the soup.
Double cream would soften and round off those spices, which works well in a mild soup but fights against the warmth Ramsay is building in this one. The coconut also keeps the soup vegan-friendly if you use vegetable stock, which he specifically notes as an option.
Why does he make a separate curry oil garnish?
The curry oil is a finishing element that adds fragrance and texture the blended soup can’t provide on its own. Fresh curry leaves, toasted cumin seeds and curry powder hit hot oil for a few seconds, which releases their aromatic oils instantly.
Spooning that oil over the smooth soup means you get two layers of flavour in every bowl: the deep, cooked spice from inside the soup and the bright, sharp aromatics floating on top. Skipping the garnish saves you two minutes but loses the thing that makes this version look and taste like it came from a restaurant.
How is this different from his Christmas pumpkin soup?
The Pumpkin Soup with Wild Mushrooms in Ultimate Christmas takes the opposite approach. He roasts whole pumpkin halves at 340F (170C) for about an hour with garlic and rosemary, then scoops out the flesh and blends it with Parmesan, nutmeg, ham stock and double cream. The garnish is sautéed wild mushrooms.
Everything about that soup is rich, earthy and European. The Quick and Delicious version is lighter and faster, built on South Asian spices with coconut instead of cream. One takes an hour and a half, the other takes 30 minutes. Ramsay notes you can swap butternut squash into the Christmas version too, which tells you he sees them as interchangeable bases dressed in very different flavours.
Why blend the garlic, ginger and chillies into a paste first?
Chopping garlic, ginger and chilli separately means each piece cooks at a different rate. Small bits of garlic burn before thick slices of ginger soften, so you end up with uneven heat and bitter spots.
Blending them into a paste first means they cook as one ingredient at the same speed. The paste melts into the butter and onion base in 2 to 3 minutes and disappears completely into the soup. You taste warmth and depth rather than individual chunks of ginger or raw garlic. If you like this approach to bold, spiced flavours, his Moroccan carrot salad uses a similar spice-forward technique with roasted carrots.
I’m Ava Taylor. I’m A Self-taught Home Cook Who Loves Gordon Ramsay Recipes. I Try Every Dish In My Small Apartment Kitchen And Tweak It Until It Works. I Write Clear Steps With Simple Words So Anyone Can Follow. I Share Honest Wins, Mistakes, And Quick Tips To Help You Cook With Confidence.