What to Eat With Butternut Squash Soup? 14 Delicious Sides

A bowl of creamy butternut squash soup is a deliciously wonderful blend of hearty, creamy, warming, and sweet sensations and flavors. Naturally, then it is a very popular choice amongst a lot of people. However, if wanting to have something more substantial than a simple bowl, then you may be wondering what to eat with butternut squash soup?

Table of Contents

• What To Eat With Butternut Squash
• Butternut Squash Soup Toppings
  • Seeds
  • Croutons
  • Fresh Herbs
  • Bacon
  • Cheese
  • Sour Cream
• Butternut Squash Soup Side Dishes
  • Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon
  • Roasted Vegetables
  • Kale Chips
  • Salad
  • Maple Glazed Carrots
  • Bread
  • Breadsticks
  • Fried Okra
  • Wild Rice Pilaf And Sauteed Mushrooms
• Answered: What to Eat With Butternut Squash Soup?
• FAQ – What to Eat With Butternut Squash Soup?

What To Eat With Butternut Squash

Like with butternut squash ravioli, the options available of what to have with butternut squash soup recipes are incredibly wide and varied. As a result, though, knowing what to have with it can be something of an overwhelming challenge. 

Fortunately, though, your options can be broken up into two distinct categories depending on what you want from the addition to your bowl of hearty soup. Simply put, these are whether you wish to add toppings to your soup or prepare a side dish to go alongside it. 

Either way, the goal is somewhat similar though. With both approaches, you are bolstering your butternut squash soup meal with complementary flavours whilst making the meal itself somewhat more substantial.

Butternut Squash Soup Toppings

The beauty of adding toppings to butternut squash soup, or indeed any type of soup is that they will be more integrated with the soup itself along with adding additional flavour and texture. Additionally, they will be less likely to become the dominant focus of the meal. With this in mind, some of the best types of butternut squash soups toppings can be found below:

• Seeds
• Croutons
• Fresh Herbs
• Bacon
• Cheese
• Sour Cream

Seeds

Whether it’s pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds or anything else in between, seeds make for a wonderful topping for butternut squash soup. The aforementioned ones, in particular, are all excellent choices as they not only add a delicious crunch to your bowl of butternut squash soup but also a variety of different complimentary flavours.

In addition, though, the other benefit that seeds add to the meal is that they are a wonderful source of various nutrients. As such, when included as a soup topping, they help to make the meal more well rounded from a health perspective.

Croutons

Croutons are incredibly varied and delicious with a lot of their flavour being derived from the type of bread they come from. Whether focaccia, pumpernickel or something in between, croutons will add both some delicious crunch but also soft texture to the soup. Meanwhile, it will also add some of the taste from the bread itself. 

The beauty of croutons as well is that they are an excellent way to use your bread that has gone slightly stale but is still edible. This is because croutons are incredibly simple and quick to make. In fact, once seasoned with olive oil or a dressing of your choice, diced stale bread can be baked on a baking sheet into croutons in little more than a few minutes.

Fresh Herbs

A small sprinkling of fresh herbs can excellently compliment the flavour of your butternut squash soup without necessarily overpowering. Rosemary and thyme are of course wonderful options you can use. However, the best option is to use sage since it and butternut squash are always perfect together.

Even if though, you don’t want to use herbs on the soup themselves though they can still be incorporated into your meal. This is because with certain other toppings such as croutons or the sides below they can be used as seasonings to enhance the existing flavours of these supplementary dishes even further.

Bacon

Pretty much every meat-eater likes bacon right? If you’re not in this minority that doesn’t then, you will likely be elated to hear that bacon can make for a wonderful topping for butternut squash soup.

The reason it works so well is that bacon can add everything that a bowl of this creamy soup lacks. As we know, bacon is crispy, smokey, savoury and wonderfully meaty, all of which contrasts deliciously with the soup itself. 

Bacon works best in this context when cut into small pieces, such as with bacon lardons. This is because it will add all of the wonderful traits you crave in bacon without making the soup cumbersome to eat.

Cheese

Another wonderful food that near enough everyone likes is cheese. Whether it’s parmesan, stilton, cheddar or anything in between, cheese is always a welcome addition to nearly any savoury meal.

Truly any hard cheese can and will be a wonderful addition to your soup. This is because like always, the cheese will serve as a wonderful method of quickly adding some additional delicious flavour to your meal. Especially so if you allow it to melt slightly from the soup’s heat before eating.

Sour Cream

This may seem a somewhat strange idea, but if you want to add some unique flavour and make your soup taste extra creamy, then sour cream is a wonderful inclusion. Sour cream adds an extra light tangy twist to your soup, making it a more complex and layered eating experience.

If, however, you are wary of the additional calories that will come as a result of adding sour cream there is another option you can turn to. This of course coconut milk, which helps provide a similar effect without significantly increasing the calories present in your soup.

Butternut Squash Soup Side Dishes

Soup toppings can add some wonderful supplementary flavour to your butternut squash soup. However, they will often not be enough to make your soup into a more substantial meal. At least not in any meaningful way. As such, you may want to have a side dish alongside your main meal. If so, the options below are some excellent side dish candidates:

• Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon
• Roasted Vegetables
• Kale Chips
• Salad
• Maple Glazed Carrots
• Bread
• Breadsticks
• Fried Okra
• Wild Rice Pilaf And Sauteed Mushrooms

Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon

Brussels sprouts have gotten sort of a bad reputation, particularly in recent years. However, when they’re cooked right, they like many other types of vegetables can be wonderfully flavourful and quite frankly, delicious.

When coated in olive oil and roasted in the oven for around half an hour, sprouts are delicious. In fact, their earthy flavour goes particularly well with sweet dishes such as butternut squash soup. 

This flavour is enhanced even further though when bacon is served with them. Typically the bacon will be cooked separately and diced before topping the sprouts. As such if planning to add bacon to your soup why not rustle up some roasted sprouts as well?

Roasted Vegetables

Another classic choice for pairing with butternut squash or lobster ravioli also makes an appearance here. Truly though, roasted vegetables are sort of the swiss army knife of sides in that they will go with near enough anything savoury.

Naturally, then it is no surprise that they will pair excellently with butternut squash soup. In particular, though, roasted sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips and turnips make for a wonderful selection of roasted vegetables to pair with butternut squash soup.

When seasoned in your choice of herbs and spices (such as those mentioned above), coated in olive oil and roasted these root vegetables will be a delicious treat on the side of your soup. 

Kale Chips

When trying to pair a side with something like a smooth and creamy butternut squash soup, naturally, the contrast of something crispy is a good idea. As such, something like kale chips makes for a wonderful choice of side.

These are incredibly simple to make whilst being incredibly healthy, nutritious and also delicious. To make them, simply remove the stems and cut them into bite-size pieces. Following which wash and dry them before garnishing in olive oil and salt before baking for around fifteen minutes. 

Salad

Soup and salad are a classic combination of main dish and side dish. However, a side salad works especially well in this context since aside from the contrast of crunchy vegetables with creamy soup, there is something else. This is of course the contrast between the sweet butternut squash and the earthy and savoury salad.

That said though, a little bit of sweetness in your side salad isn’t unwelcome. In fact, it will likely help the flavours to more thoroughly complement one another.

An excellent idea for a side salad for a bowl of butternut squash soup is a combination of spinach, goats cheese, apples and cranberries. Then for the dressing mix dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, honey, salt and pepper with some extra virgin olive oil. 

This combination of ingredients and dressing will provide savoury, sweet and zesty flavours to your meal. Each of which will harmonise with and contrast with the flavours present in the soup.

Maple Glazed Carrots

Carrots are always a popular choice of veg, especially when roasted. However, to really make them something special why not glaze them in something sweet and saute them well in some butter?

These sweetened carrots are a wonderful accompaniment to many a dish such as a roast dinner, but particularly so for something like butternut squash soup.

These will work with near enough any sweetener of your choice from cinnamon to brown sugar. However, personally, I find that honey or maple syrup works the best.

Bread

Like with salad, soup and bread are a truly iconic combination of main dish and side dish. Often though you are best served with crust bread such as a baguette or tiger bread in order to avoid your bread becoming soggy.

That said though, even with regular sliced bread when toasted and well-buttered, it will pair excellently with your soup. Additionally, thicker pieces of softened bread will also be more able to avoid becoming overly soggy.

The extra beauty with bread though is that it can be presented in many ways and in itself be the foundation of other side dishes. For example with bread, you could serve a sandwich, toastie, garlic bread or anything in between with your butternut squash soup. All of which of course, will pair beautifully with it.

Breadsticks

Similarly to bread, breadsticks will also go wonderfully with butternut squash soup. These though will provide a level of crunch not seen in most forms of bread, making the contrast even more obvious between the main and the side.

Whether you make them yourself or buy them from the store these are an easy, quick and delicious option. Additionally, there are a wide variety of flavours that can be implemented into the breadsticks themselves to further enhance the taste. A personal favourite example is rosemary and parmesan.

Fried Okra

Okra is a very versatile green vegetable that can be boiled, fried or even microwave cooked. Commonly it will be served with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and/or cornbread crust. However, using pecorino instead of parmesan can add some extra nutty flavour to the equation.

Texture-wise they are somewhat chewy or gummy which provides something of an interesting contrast to the smooth creaminess of the soup.

Wild Rice Pilaf And Sauteed Mushrooms

If you want something particularly hearty to supplement your butternut squash soup then this simple rice dish is a wonderful choice. This will provide a wonderfully filling meal experience between both the main and side dishes. Although, if served in large quantities, the rice may end up usurping the role of your soup.

Whilst this side dish will add a lovely heartiness to your dish, another big reason it works so well is the added texture and flavour. These will be somewhat chewy in texture, meanwhile, they will also add a wonderful nutty flavour, along with that umami taste that mushrooms are known for.

Answered: What to Eat With Butternut Squash Soup?

Truly the options available for eating with butternut squash soup are incredibly varied. Whether it’s toppings like bacon or cheese or sides such as bread and roasted vegetables, there are a lot of options and combinations for your to play with. With that in mind, why not start mixing and matching some toppings and sides, either from the above or from some of your own favourites?

FAQ – What to Eat With Butternut Squash Soup?