Last Updated on December 31, 2025
Diet Soup Recipe – Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato:
It is definitely soup season again. Any regular reader may have noticed that I am not the most patient of cooks. While I prefer to cook from scratch, I am quite prepared to take shortcuts. And, although I would always recommend buying your vegetables ‘whole’, sometimes those little peeled and pre-diced packs look too useful to ignore. On the downside, I know that the minute you peel and dice vegetables, they start to age faster and lose vital nutrients. So if you are tempted to cheat occasionally, make sure you use whatever veg you buy as soon as possible. Especially if you are dieting, remember that if you reduce the total amount of food you eat, you will also be reducing the vitamins and minerals you consume.
However, butternut squash and sweet potato are both nutrient-dense foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and fibre. They’re excellent sources of beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant that the body converts into vitamin A to support healthy vision, immune function, and skin. Both provide complex carbohydrates for steady energy, along with vitamin C, potassium, and manganese, which help with immunity, heart health, and metabolism. Their high fibre content supports digestive health and helps maintain stable blood sugar levels. Overall, these vibrant orange vegetables offer a naturally sweet, nourishing boost to a balanced diet.
Butternut squash is one of those vegetables that is just hard work to peel and dice, so the 350g bag of mixed squash and sweet potato to make this low-calorie diet soup felt like a perfectly valid cheat to me.
Low Calorie Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 350 g Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato I used a pre-prepared vegetable bag – 50% of each
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Cream
- 20 g Fresh Ginger Peeled
- 1 Small Banana Shallot Peeled
- 750 ml Hot Vegetable Stock
- 1 Handful Fresh Coriander
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Roast the butternut squash, sweet potato, ginger and shallot in a low oven at 160C for 30-40 minutes till soft
- Put the ginger, butternut squash, sweet potato and shallot into your blender and blend until you have a puree. Or tip them into a saucepan and add half the stock to help blend the mixture with a stick blender
- Add the hot stock and coconut milk and continue to blend on full power until the mixture is velvety smooth. If you are using a jug blender, tip everything into a saucepan. Heat through until piping hot. If the mixture is too thick add hot water till you get something the consistency of single cream
- Add most of the coriander, reserving a few leaves for garnish. Blend for a further 30 seconds. If you are using a conventional blender you will need to chop the coriander finely to avoid having to return the mixture from a saucepan to the blender. Taste and season with salt and pepper as required.
- Serve garnished with fresh coriander and if you like, a drizzle of coconut cream
This time, I decided to TIME my soup-making. I was a little disappointed with the first soup I made in one of those all-in-one blenders because it didn’t heat up as much as I’d hoped. But, as I mentioned, patience is not a strong point of mine…
Setting the timer for 7 minutes yielded a piping-hot, velvety-textured butternut squash and sweet potato soup. Enough for three greedy dishes or four smaller ones, the calorie count per bowl will depend on your portion size. The only fat comes from the coconut cream, so you can indulge in a good bowlful for around 70 calories (the squash and sweet potato mix is just 40 calories per 100g, making the entire pack 140 calories while a tablespoon of coconut cream is 50 calories. So a large bowl of soup would be around 80 calories, and if you stretch it to feed four people, you can cut that to 60 calories.
Thinking of making this recipe yourself? Why not pin the post for later
This soup will keep in the fridge for about five days. It also freezes well and will keep for up to six months. You can heat it up from frozen in the microwave. If you don’t have fresh coriander to garnish it, then parsley will work just as well. Or you could add a handful of roasted chickpeas for a bit of textural contrast. Delicious!
Still looking for a soup recipe on your diet – my Low Calorie Celery Soup is really low in calories and high in taste. Or for something different, try this Diet Spinach and Lentil Soup. And, who wouldn’t be happy with a big bowl of low-calorie cream of tomato soup for a diet lunch?
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