This Panera autumn squash soup is the perfect fall recipe! It has a velvety smooth consistency, is made completely in a slow cooker, and is filled with some of the best fall produce.
If you know me at all at this point, you know I love soup! I could eat it for every meal and be completely happy.
Soup is such a seasonal food and can be made year-round in so many different variations as the produce changes. And this butternut squash soup is perfect for the fall season! It’s filled with some of the best fall produce such as pureed pumpkin, butternut squash, carrots, and onions.
This recipe came about after trying Panera Bread’s classic squash soup. I thought it was too delicious to not try and whip up my own version of it!
The flavors of this recipe are sweet & savory, the consistency is perfectly creamy, and it’s all made easy in a slow cooker. You’ll find it not only delicious but very easy to make! All around a win-win situation.
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Ingredients You Need
You’ll need just 10 ingredients to make this slow-cooker soup happen. Here’s everything you need: carrots, pureed pumpkin, vegetable broth, yellow onion, coconut sugar, salt & pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic cloves, coconut milk, and butternut squash.
How to Make Panera Autumn Squash Soup
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1
First, prepare the vegetables. Then add all of the ingredients (minus milk) to slow cooker.
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2
Stir ingredients together, cover, and cook in a slow cooker/crockpot for 5 hours on LOW or 3 hours on HIGH.
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3
When soup is finished cooking, use a hand-immersion blender or high-powered blend and puree soup until a smooth consistency.
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4
Serve with coconut milk, pumpkin seeds, and additional seasonings.
Extra Soup Tips
Our Favorite Hand-Held Blender
velvety soup in seconds
Save yourself the hassle of having to transfer your hot soup into a blender. This hand-held immersion blender is SO easy to use and safely blends your soup right in the pot within seconds! We use it in soups, sauces, and so much more.
If you click this link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.- Use homemade broth: whenever I have it on hand, I love using homemade vegetable broth in this recipe to elevate the flavor even more.
- Use a blender to puree soup: if you don’t have a hand-immersion blender, use a high-powdered blender to puree the soup (you may have to do several batches depending on the size).
- Additional spices you can add: to add a little bit more herbs and spices to your soup we recommend a pinch of curry powder, sage, rosemary, thyme, or ground ginger.
How to Store Leftovers & Freeze
Keep leftovers fresh: store soup in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days for ultimate freshness.
Freeze: store cooled soup in an airtight container or freezer-friendly ziplock bag for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature and reheat.
Serving Suggestions
This soup goes wonderfully with homemade bread – like our no-knead cranberry walnut bread or cinnamon raisin! You can also serve it with a seasonal fall salad like our Apple Pomegranate Harvest Salad or Warm Brussels Sprout Salad – you can’t go wrong with either!
Other Delicious Soups to Try:
- 30-Minute Leek and Potato Soup
- Creamy Roasted Broccoli and Cheese Soup
- Healthy Tomato Basil Soup
- Healthy Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
- Tuscan White Bean Soup
- Creamy Cauliflower Soup
Copycat Panera Autumn Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 small yellow onion chopped
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 medium-large butternut squash peeled and cubed
- 2-3 carrots peeled and chopped (or a little over 1 cup)
- 1/2 15 oz. can organic pumpkin puree
- 2 Tbsp coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cracked pepper
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk (unsweetened)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
- pinch of cayenne *optional
- pumpkin seeds for topping *optional
Instructions
- Prepare vegetables: peel squash and cut into 1-2 inch cubes. Cut heads of carrots off and slice into 1/2-inch thick pieces. Peel onion and slice into pieces.
- Cook: Add all of the ingredients (except coconut milk) to slow cooker/crockpot – vegetable broth, onion, garlic, squash, carrots, pumpkin puree, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch of cayenne, and salt & pepper. Mix ingredients together. Set slow cooker time for 5 hours on LOW or 3 hours on HIGH.
- Puree soup: after soup has cooked, use a hand-immersion blender or high-powered blender to blend soup until creamy and smooth.
- Season to taste and serve: before serving soup, taste it and adjust with salt & back pepper or additional spice if desired. Stir in 1/2 cup coconut milk and then serve with pumpkin seeds, cracked black pepper, and a sprinkle of coconut sugar if desired.
This soup is amazing, I use almond milk or whole milk (lactose free) because I can’t have lactose. I’m sure it’s better with the cream, but it’s still amazing with almond milk or milk.
I’m really glad to hear that! Love that it worked with a dairy-free sub. Thanks, Jessica! 🙂
So delicious!! Taste just like the Panera soup. I just added more brown sugar and cinnamon. Will definitely make this again
Thank you Barbara! so happy you liked it 🙂
Glad you could adjust it to your liking! Thanks for sharing, Lexi!
Fantastic soup. I used chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, because that is what I had. Having it tonight with a salad and rolls. Would definitely make this again.
Wonderful! Thank you, Kathleen!
Thanks Kathleen. Was just wondering if I could use chicken broth.
Have you tried this with frozen butternut squash? I’m wondering how many cups of squash you will need. I know fresh is best, but I have several bags of frozen squash that I want to use for this.
I’ve not tried with frozen, it should work out fine. My only thought is frozen squash may have a bit more moisture to it once cooked, so you may have to lessen the broth if so. Let me know if you try it!
Well written instructions and tips. DELICIOUS!
Very yummy. I added 2 apples to it and used honey instead of sugar.
awesome idea! Thank you, Kathy!
How did you add the apples?
It goes into the slow cooker with the rest of the soup ingredients! Sorry if that wasn’t clear. 🙂
Made this last night. Added 2 peeled, chopped Granny Smith apples and substituted a sweet onion for the yellow. I sautéed the onion first and put all ingredients (up to cream) in Instant Pot and cooked it on high pressure for 12 minutes; let the pressure release naturally (took about an hour from start to finish) I’ve tried about a half dozen copy cat recipes and I think this is the closest match to Panera’s soup out there. Thank you for posting!
I agree it was good but not the same as Panera. I pulled up the ingredients on the label and added 1/2 to cup of applesauce, a couple good squeezes of lemon., tablespoon of honey, half block of cream cheese. It was great. I also added a little pumpkin coffee creamer to my individual bowl . Enjoy!! Fully loaded
I don’t have a slow cooker. I have a pressure cooker. What do I do
Hi Anita, It should only need about 20 minutes to cook in your pressure cooker!
Loved this recipe, my daughter loved it too. Thanks for sharing!
So happy to hear!
This is so good and just like Panera’s soup. I love it and will be making this soup again and again. Thank you so much!
Yay! So happy to hear. Thanks, Laurie!
The autumn squash soup at Panera is my favorite and this looks just as amazing! Can’t wait to try it out this weekend. I wanted to let you know I featured this in my recent post: https://amysenter.com/january-pinterest-roundup/
I made this soup. I cooked it overnight in my crockpot on low. Worked great. The only thing I will change next time is I would skip the carrots and use the whole can of pumpkin . I never know what to do with a half can left over. It was yummy.
Super glad to hear!
If you have a dog, pumpkin is a great healthy treat for them. My dog loves when I make this soup because she gets the left over pumpkin purée😊
Couldn’t agree more! I just made cookies with pumpkin and my dog was quite happy to lick the spoon when we were done. 😉
For my taste it’s definitely missing something. I am going to add applesauce as one reader suggested and a baked sweet potato and double the seasoning.