Butternut Squash Lasagna Soup takes everything you love about classic lasagna soup and gives it a cozy fall makeover. Instead of tomato sauce, I use creamy butternut squash blended with Boursin cheese to create the most velvety, comforting base you can imagine. If you love fall soup recipes that use seasonal produce in creative ways, this one’s going to be a favorite!
Butternut Squash is in the house!
It’s been years since I’ve grown butternut squash, as a sadly fixed amount of garden space means that they had to step aside for my beloved sweet potatoes and honeynut squash.
The latter, by the way, are amazing. Honeynut squash was specifically bred to improve upon the flavor and size of the butternut. And they succeeded! Ssweet and earthy-sweet, they’re what butternuts wish they could grow up to be.
If you can find honeynuts where you live, I highly recommend them as a substitution for regular butternuts in this and any recipe.
But, barring that, it’s still butternut squash season, and it’s time to bust out some delicious recipes. Let’s hit it!
Butternut Squash Lasagna Soup is —
- A unique mashup of lasagna and butternut squash soup.
- A great way to use up seasonal butternut squash — especially if you’re a vegetable gardener!
- Full of savory and herby flavors from the sausage and Boursin.
- A creamy, substantial, and wonderfully carby soup that’s meal-level with a side of crusty bread.
If you can’t get enough of winter squash soups when fall rolls around — and who can! — be sure to check out my Panera Autumn Squash Soup and my Roasted Winter Squash and Feta Soup. Such crave-able ways to use up the season’s best veggies.
Key Ingredients
Butternut squash — You have a few options for the squash. You can buy a whole squash and peel and slice it yourself. Produce departments sometimes package prepared raw squash for convenience (and premium pricing). And of course, there’s always frozen.
Lasagna noodles — I used to be able to buy mini lasagna noodles at the grocery store, which would be perfect for this soup: small and ruffly and they fit just right on a spoon. Sadly, I couldn’t find them this time around. Mafalda noodles are the next best bet, as they’re long and ruffly like regular lasagna noodles, but skinnier, so you get more ruffly and fewer flat pieces. I had to go with the big sheets of lasagna noodles, breaking them into spoon-sized bits.
Sausage — My favorite standard lasagna recipe uses plenty of Italian sausage, and it was a must-have for this soup, too. Butternut squash is slightly sweet, and the savory notes of the sausage are an easy companion. You can substitute turkey or chicken sausage for a lighter take.
Boursin — Tomatoes are a strong and critical flavoring component for lasagna, and I wanted to make sure that swapping them out for butternut squash wouldn’t end up too mild. So, instead of ricotta, I use some Boursin which adds both flavor and creaminess to the soup.
How to Make Butternut Squash Lasagna Soup
Ready to make the recipe? Skip to the recipe card now to see the full ingredient list, quantities, prep/cooking times, and printable, detailed instructions. Or, keep scrolling for a visual walk-through of making the soup.
Prep notes
Here’s a quick guide for prepping the ingredients, if you need it (not including anything that simply needs to be measured out of a container, such as dried herbs and liquids).
- Peel the butternut squash and slice the flesh into 1/2″ cubes. There are several ways to tackle the thick skin on a squash, but my go-to method involves removing the stem and bulbous ends, laying the squash on its side, and running a sturdy Y-peeler down the length of the squash, turning as you go. Then slice the squash into disks and chop from there.
- Peel the onion and discard the stem and root ends. Chop about half of a medium onion into small dice.
- Peel and mince the garlic cloves.
- If using long noodles, break them into small spoon-sized pieces. I usually crack a lasagna noodle into three lengths, then crack each length down the center, and finally into smaller pieces, so that most pieces have a ruffly edge.
- For easier/faster melting, cut the Boursin disk in half, and then one of the halves into cubes (return the other half to the fridge for another use).
Brown the sausage
Cook the sausage in some oil, stirring frequently and breaking down the big chunks, until there’s no pink. Transfer to a bowl. If there’s a lot of fond stuck to the bottom of the pot, pour in the white wine and loosen the fond into the pot with a spatula while the alcohol cooks off.
Sauté the aromatics and squash
Add the onions and the butternut squash, stir well, and cover with a lid. Cook, stirring frequently, until the squash softens a little. Add the garlic and seasonings and mix well.
Step 3: Start the soup and cook the lasagna noodles
Pour in the broth and bring to a light and steady boil. Let the squash cook until quite tender (e.g., mashable against the side of the pot). Use an immersion blender to blend the soup to your preference (a few pulses for a chunky soup or a long whirl to smooth it out completely). Maintaining a light boil, add the lasagna noodles and cook per the packaging instructions. Note that they might take several additional minutes to fully cook, because we’re not going all out with the boil. Check the noodles for doneness before continuing.
Add the dairy
While the noodles cook, add the Boursin and cream to a medium bowl and add several ladles of the hot soup liquid. Whisk until smooth and pour into the soup and mix well.
Finish the soup
Add the reserved sausage, and top the soup with a pinch of nutmeg and lots of grated parm. Season with black pepper and red pepper flakes, if using, and taste, adjusting the salt as needed. Serve immediately.
Storing
This soup is best served immediately. It’s perfectly safe to store in the fridge for up to 5 days, but note that the pasta will continue to absorb most, if not all, of the soup liquid. You’ll need to rehydrate the soup, which can diminish the flavors of the original serving. I mix up a little Better Than Bouillon chicken broth for reheating. It’s quite satisfying as leftovers.
Butternut Squash Lasagna Soup is something I’ll return to again and again for chilly fall evenings when I want a dinner that feels both cozy and special. Like traditional lasagna, garlic bread is the perfect side to serve with this soup. I’d love to hear how it turns out in your kitchen! If you give this recipe a try, drop a comment below and let me know what you think.
Butternut Squash Lasagna Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil
- 1/2 pound mild or sweet Italian sausage (ground)*
- 1/4 cup white wine , optional, if needed
- 1 cup chopped onions (about 1/2 medium onion)
- 3 cups diced butternut squash (a 2 to 3 lb squash)
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herb blend
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 8 ounces lasagna noodles broken up into spoon-sized pieces (or mini lasagna noodles)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 4 ounces Boursin , cut into cubes (about half the round)
- Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
- Red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano Regianno
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium until the surface shimmers. Cook the sausage until browned, breaking up the big chunks as you go. Transfer the sausage to bowl and set aside.**
- If the pot is a bit dry, add another drizzle of oil.
- Saute the onions the and butternut squash until the onions are soft and some of the squash cubes have started to soften, 8-10 minutes (they won’t be cooked through at this point). Cover with a lid to trap the heat and steam within, to speed cooking.
- Sprinkle a big pinch each of salt and black pepper over the vegetables, followed by the Italian herbs, and garlic. Stir well to mix for a minute or two. The garlic should be fragrant.
- Add the broth, raise the heat to high, and bring the soup to a boil. Adjust the heat down as necessary to maintain an active simmer (bubbling, but not roiling). Cook for 5 minutes. The squash should be soft (test by smushing a cube against the side of the pot).
- Use an immersion blender to pulse the soup, smoothing it out to your preferred texture: Pulse a few times for a soup with some squash chunks. Pulse a little more for a smooth soup with some texture. Or whirl for about 30 seconds for a velvety soup. Keep the soup at a simmer.
- Add the lasagna noodles to the soup and simmer for the amount of time noted on the package plus 3 extra minutes***, or until the noodles are completely cooked.
- Place the Boursin cubes in a medium mixing bowl and add two ladles of the hot soup. Whisk until smooth. Add the cream to the bowl and whisk again. Pour the mixture into the soup, stirring well.
- Add the cooked sausage back to the pot.
- Sprinkle a pinch of nutmeg over the soup (or 2 or 3 grates from a whole nutmeg nut), or red pepper flakes, if using either.
- Taste the soup and add more salt and pepper if necessary, to your liking.
- Top the soup with the cheese. Hold some back for adding to individual bowls, if you’d like.
Video
Notes
** If the pot has a lot of fond stuck to the bottom, deglaze the pot with a splash of white wine or broth before adding the onions.
*** Why the extra minutes? Normally when you cook pasta, it’s by itself in boiling water. When cooking pasta directly in a soup, the temperature is lower, so it just takes longer.