This Christmas Eve soup with crusty chunky bread makes the perfect 'warm you up' dinner the night before the big day. Made with seasonal butternut squash and ginger, this gingerbread inspired soup is exactly what you need to keep you going as you track Santa on his journey across the planet!

Christmas Eve Soup

Thick, creamy and warming. That's exactly what this Gingerbread inspired soup is. My kids love the sweetness of the butternut squash with the warming Christmassy taste of ginger.

Every Christmas Eve since I was a child we had soup on Christmas Eve. I'm really not sure where the tradition came from but it's one I've carried on for my kids. Everyone round the Kitchen table wrapping up the last of the gifts for family that'll be visiting the following day. The kids when they were younger, chatting excitedly and loudly about where Father Christmas might be at that very second, a couple of hours before the inevitable not being able to sleep that usually lasted until midnight.

I'd love to tell you the snow was falling outside the kitchen window but it's never snowed at Christmas where I live. The best we've had is a bit before Christmas or a couple of months afterwards. But we have thousands of fairy lights covering every available area possible and so no snow's forgivable :)

Before we started eating Clean we still did the whole soup on Christmas Eve thing, but rather than my grandmother's beautiful vast pots of homemade broths and soups, I'd buy store bought soups most years. And they were nice, but you don't get the same effect as you do with a huge pot of soup bubbling away on the stove making your house smell devine. So I came up with this soup. And we've had it ever since.

Why I Love This Recipe

This recipe feels like Christmas to me. The warm smell of ginger as it's cooking is like gingerbread, and the sweetness of the butternut squash together with the ginger makes this one of my favorite soups.

It's thick, creamy and filling while not being heavy. If you have younger kids you might know how hard it can be to stay awake (you know, hoping to catch a glimpse of Father Christmas:) while your kids flatly refuse to sleep. If i'd had a big meal, I wouldn't have stood a chance of staying awake. So you see, a light meals better on Christmas Eve.

What To Serve With Soup On Christmas Eve

We like to keep things simple here. There's enough going on with food prep for the next day to be thinking to heavily about this meal. And besides, it doesn't need much more, the flavors on their own are enough. Except to say we always have.....

Crusty Bread And Butter

A crusty loaf of Wholegrain bread is an essential that simply has to be served with this soup. It's non negotiable. Tear of chunks and dip in in the soup, use it to mop up the soup and love every last mouthful! Add butter if needed. Even better :)

Ingredients

I like to make a huge pot of this, and I really mean huge. Most of us have seconds and this is a time, for us anyway, to not hold back and have seconds and thirds and carry on until it's gone. It's that good!

Butternut Squash

I use two butternut squash. I don't roast the squash before hand, I've tried it this way and I don't see it makes a lot of difference apart from adding time and washing up to the mix. To cut your butternut, cut off the 'bulb' part so you're left with the flesh only (not the seeded bit) and then slice the stalk off, leaving as much of the squash as possible.

You then are able to fold one of the flat ends on a chopping board and thinly slice the skin off. Or you can cut it into rings and then slice the skin off each ring.

Chopping butternut squash is a pain, but there's no way around it and it's 100% worth it. It's by far the worst part of this prep. You can buy butternut squash ready peeled and chopped. I'm not going to judge you.....

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Red Pepper

One red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped. Red pepper adds sweetness and flavor. It also helps give this soup a deep golden orange color. Very Christmassy!

Ginger

The part of the soup that turns it into Christmas! I use ground ginger as in this soup, using ground ginger rather than fresh ginger gives the soup a warmer, less 'sharp' flavor that you can sometimes get with fresh ginger. While I love fresh ginger and you can totally use it in this recipe (i'll give you the quantities below if you'd prefer fresh), I feel ground ginger works better in this recipe.

Potato

I add a couple of potatoes to thicken the soup and add a creamier taste. The potato doesn't add much in the way of flavor but the texture of the soup goes from think to thick with this addition.

Cream

Adding a little heavy cream after cooking and before blending gives this soup a luxury feel that's hard to beat. It's not loads, and feel free to leave it out if you wish. But as a Christmas Eve soup, adding a little heavy cream feels okay!

More Clean Eating Soups

• Broccoli and Cheddar soup
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Chicken noodle soup
• Oven roasted tomato soup
• Golden vegetable soup

How To Make Christmas Eve Soup

Ingredients

• 2 Butternut Squash Peeled and chopped into chunks
• 1 Red pepper Deseeded and roughly chopped up
• 2 Large Potatoes Peeled and roughly chopped up
• 1 onions Peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp Ground ginger
• 1 Cup Beef stock Made up with boiling water
• ½ Cup Heavy cream
• Salt & Pepper

Instructions

• Find a large sauce pan and add the butternut squash, potato, red pepper, ground ginger and stock.
• Season the soup really well
• Top up the pan to about 3 inches from the top with cold water
• Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer over a medium heat
• Simmer the soup for 1 hour, stirring occasionally
• When the vegetables have become crumbly, turn off the heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes
• Blend the soup using a handheld blender (blend it in the pan)
• Add the cream and blend again for a few minutes until the soup is smooth
• Ladle into bowls and eat with spoons or bread!

How To Make Christmas Eve Soup Recipe