Butternut squash and pears cook together in this vegan and vegetarian recipe. Make this healthy comfort soup in your slow cooker or Instant Pot.

PIN FOR LATER
I already have a butternut squash recipe on this blog but I it contains bacon. I get asked all the time for vegan/vegetarian slow cooker or instant pot recipes so it was important to me that this one be not just paleo and whole30 but completely meatfree as well.

before
I recently found myself sitting on a 5+ pounds of butternut squash so to switch things up, I grabbed some pears too. This took a few tries to get right. The first two times, the soup was good but it just tasted like regular butternut squash soup. It wasn’t until I upped the pears to an almost 1:1 ratio with the squash that I finally felt like the pears had a place in the recipe. If you want your soup to have more of a squash taste, use less pear.

after
I suggest either bosc or bartlett pears for this recipe. If you want your soup to be thinner, add a 1/2 cup more broth. Don’t worry about chopping your squash, pears, and onion perfectly before adding them because everything is going to get blended down anyway.
Print
Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Butternut Squash & Pear Soup (Paleo,Whole30)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 2 lbs butternut squash, peeled & chopped
- 1 1/2 lbs pears peeled & chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 5 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 tsp sage
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp curry powder
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tsp oil (for IP)
Instructions
Slow Cooker
- Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker. Stir to mix well.
- Cook HIGH 2-3 hours or LOW 4-6.
- Using a blender or immersion blender, process until smooth.
Instant Pot
- Set Instant Pot to the high saute setting. Heat oil. Once hot, add oil onion and garlic and cook for a 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add the broth and deglaze the bottom of the pressure cooker by scraping all the bits off with a wooden spoon.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the IP. Close lid and seal valve. Set high pressure and cook for 8 minutes.
- Natural release pressure for 5 minutes then manually the remaining pressure.
- Using a blender or immersion blender, process until smooth.
Notes
Cook time calculated for slow cooker.
When using the Instant Pot, make sure liquid is below the maximum line.
After everything is done cooking, I like to use my Hamilton Beach 2-Speed Hand Blender immersion blender directly in the slow cooker or Instant pot base. It will blended it in a matter of minutes. You can also pour the entire contents of the slow cooker into a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
I used a 3.5-quart slow cooker for this recipe.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive money if you make a purchase using one of the links. For more about my disclosure policy see here: https://fitslowcookerqueen.com/about/disclosure-policy/
I just made this last night, and it’s SO good! Just wondering, is this 4 servings total? It seems like a lot, so I’m wondering if your calorie/nutrition information is based on 4 large servings equaling the entire amount of soup?