Slow-Cooker Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk
on Feb 24, 2026
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This easy slow-cooker butternut squash soup is creamy and fragrant with coconut milk. Red curry paste, ginger and garlic give the soup nice flavor and make it spicy. This cozy vegan soup is just the way to celebrate winter squash season. It’s a simple make-ahead recipe.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Slow-cooker soups are always a win for meals on chilly fall and winter days. Sometimes I like letting this handy appliance do the work. It’s worth the wait for the squash to be soft enough to blend with the rest of the ingredients into a satisfying soup.
This vegan soup is creamy with fantastic flavor and heat. Whether you roast butternut squash or cook it in a crockpot, it becomes very tender, so it works well in soups that are pureed.
This freezer-friendly soup is great for make-ahead lunches. Today I just warmed up a bowl in the microwave and ate it with pita and hummus. I love leftovers no matter the time of year, but they’re at their peak during soup season.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Butternut squash: You can peel and cut the squash yourself, or buy it already cubed for a shortcut. It’s fine to substitute with another type of winter squash like pumpkin, but those other varieties can be more challenging to peel. (I also make a kabocha squash soup.)
- Onions & carrots are the starting point for developing the flavors of the soup. I sauté them in a skillet before they make it into the slow-cooker because that gives these diced veggies more opportunity to cook instead of just slowly simmering them in the liquid of the soup.
- Thai red curry paste is what gives the soup heat. It’s pretty easy to find in the Asian food section at the grocery. Read the ingredient list on the jar to make sure that it’s vegan. Sometimes it can contain fermented shrimp paste.
- Minced ginger & garlic along with cumin, kosher salt and black pepper along with spicy curry paste make each nourishing spoonful bold.
- Coconut milk is cool and creamy balancing the heat from the curry paste. I use full-fat coconut milk. You can pour in more or less depending how spicy you want the soup.
- Low-sodium vegetable broth is what I use whenever I make soup because I want to control the seasoning levels.
- Chopped peanuts, cilantro and red pepper flakes: I drizzle each bowl of soup with coconut milk. Then I garnish them with these add-ons for both texture and taste.
How To Make This Slow-Cooker Curried Butternut Squash Soup
1. Sauté the onions and carrots. If your slow-cooker has a stovetop safe pot, then you don’t need to cook them in a separate skillet. Give them 5 or 6 minutes to soften.
2. Add the aromatics and dried spices. That includes fresh garlic & ginger, red curry paste, cumin, salt and pepper. After about a minute it will have a wonderful aroma.
3. Cook the sautéed onions & carrots, butternut squash and veggie broth in the slow-cooker for on high 3-4 hours. The soup will be ready to blend when the squash is soft enough to easily mash.
4. Puree the soup. Carefully do this in batches in a high-powered blender, so the soup turns out very smooth. Then pour it back into the crockpot set to warm.
5. Stir in the coconut milk. Add between 3/4 and 1 cup. More will make the soup less spicy.
6. Ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle with more coconut milk and garnish with chopped cilantro, peanuts and red pepper flakes.
Serving
I’m a big fan of soup paired with a salad for lunch or dinner. Because this is a pureed vegetable soup, I like salads that are crisp with tons of good texture. Two recipes that do just that are this shredded cabbage salad with a nutty ginger dressing and this roasted cauliflower and apple chopped salad.
Recipe Tips
- Give the squash enough time in the crockpot. It should be very soft. Even if you have a Vitamix, you won’t be able to get the soup really smooth if it’s not completely cooked.
- Use full fat coconut milk, so you get that lovely, creamy consistency. It won’t be as good if you substitute with light coconut milk.
- Taste the soup to see if you need to adjust the seasonings. This is important for all soup recipes. They may need more salt and/or pepper to bring out the overall flavors.
Slow-Cooker Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, roughly chopped
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 pounds peeled and diced butternut squash
- 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 3/4 – 1 cup coconut milk plus more for serving
- Chopped peanuts & cilantro and red pepper flakes for serving
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Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, warm the olive oil. Sauté the onions and carrots until the onions are soft and translucent and the carrots are tender, about 5-6 minutes.
- Add the garlic, ginger, red curry paste, cumin, salt and pepper. Continue cooking for another minute until fragrant.
- Transfer the sautéed onions and carrots to a slow cooker. Add the butternut squash and vegetable broth. Cook on high for 3-4 hours until the squash and carrots are very soft.
- Carefully transfer the soup in batches to a blender and puree until smooth. Return the soup to the slow cooker, set to warm. Stir in 3/4 to 1 cup coconut milk, depending how spicy you want the soup.
- Divide the soup into bowls, drizzle with additional coconut milk and top with chopped cilantro, peanuts and red pepper flakes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
When do you add the 1/2 cup coconut milk? When you add the stock? or after it cooks the 2-3 hours?
Hi Carol. Thanks for catching that! You stir the coconut milk in after the soup has cooked and you have pureed it. I just updated the recipe.