Creamy Butternut Squash & White Bean Lasagna Soup (No Cream!)

This Butternut Squash & White Bean Lasagna Soup is a delicious cozy fall meal that is healthy, great to meal prep and is also freezer-friendly. Plus it’s gluten free-friendly and family approved over here.

If you love lasagna but do not necessarily love the whole making lasagna situation, this Butternut Squash & White Bean Lasagna Soup is for you.

Because sometimes you want all of the cozy, cheesy, carb-y goodness of lasagna without spending an hour layering noodles, sauce, cheese, and approximately 47 dishes across your kitchen counter. Enter: lasagna soup.

This version is a little different from your classic tomato-based lasagna soup. There is no marinara sauce here. Instead, we cook butternut squash until tender and then blend it right into the soup, creating the creamiest, naturally sweet, super cozy broth. White beans add protein and make the soup hearty enough to actually count as dinner, while broken lasagna noodles give you all of those nostalgic lasagna vibes.

Then we finish the whole thing with Parmesan, mozzarella, and a giant spoonful of ricotta because, well, obviously.

It is cozy, comforting, family-friendly, and exactly the kind of dinner I want on repeat once the weather starts getting cooler.

And yes, you can make it gluten-free by using gluten-free lasagna noodles.

Why you’ll love this Butternut Squash & White Bean Lasagna Soup

There are a few things that make this soup especially good.

First, the butternut squash becomes the soup base. Instead of adding a tomato sauce, we simmer the squash in broth until it is fork-tender and then use an immersion blender to blend it into the broth. This makes the soup thick, creamy, and incredibly flavorful without needing a ton of cream.

Second, we add white beans. I love sneaking beans into cozy meals because they make the soup more filling and add protein and fiber. You can blend some of them into the soup for even more creaminess or leave most of them whole for texture. I usually do a little of both.

And then there are the noodles. Breaking lasagna noodles into smaller pieces means you get little bites of lasagna in every spoonful without needing to layer a single thing.

Basically, it is lasagna for people who want dinner to be easy.

Ingredients you need

Olive oil

We start with a couple tablespoons of olive oil to sauté the onion and garlic. It adds a little richness and helps build the flavor of the soup from the very beginning.

Yellow onion

Diced yellow onion gives the soup a savory base and balances the natural sweetness of the butternut squash.

Garlic

Three cloves of garlic adds that little extra layer of flavor that makes the soup taste like you put in way more effort than you actually did.

Dried oregano + Italian seasoning

These two pantry staples give the soup that classic Italian-inspired flavor. You can absolutely adjust these based on what you have on hand.

Crushed red pepper

Optional, but highly recommended if you like a little heat. I love adding just enough to give the soup a tiny kick without making it spicy for the kids.

Butternut squash

The star of the show.

You’ll want one small butternut squash, peeled and cut into small ½-inch cubes. Smaller pieces cook more quickly and evenly, which is especially helpful because we want the squash very tender so it blends easily.

If peeling and chopping a butternut squash is not something you want to deal with on a Tuesday night, I fully support buying the pre-cut stuff. Dinner is dinner.

Cannellini beans

Cannellini beans are my favorite here because they’re creamy, mild, and hold their shape nicely. They also make this soup more substantial and add some plant-based protein and fiber.

Drain and rinse them before adding them to the pot.

Chicken or vegetable broth

Either works! I usually use chicken broth for a little more savory flavor, but vegetable broth keeps the soup vegetarian.

Lasagna noodles

You can use regular lasagna noodles or gluten-free lasagna noodles. Break them into smaller pieces before adding them to the soup.

This is also a great way to use up a box of lasagna noodles sitting in your pantry when you have absolutely no interest in making actual lasagna.

Full-fat coconut milk or heavy cream

This is where the soup gets extra luscious.

I love using full-fat coconut milk when I want the soup to be dairy-free-ish before adding the cheese, but heavy cream gives it that classic creamy soup situation. If you use coconut milk, don’t worry — the soup doesn’t taste like a coconut soup. It simply adds richness.

Parmesan + mozzarella

Because this is lasagna soup and cheese is not optional.

Finely grated Parmesan melts beautifully into the broth, while shredded mozzarella makes the soup extra creamy and cheesy.

Salt + pepper

Simple but important. Taste the soup as you go and adjust as needed, especially depending on how salty your broth and Parmesan are.

How to make Butternut Squash & White Bean Lasagna Soup

Start by heating the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add your diced onion and cook for about 4–5 minutes, until it softens.

Add the garlic, oregano, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper. Give everything a good stir and cook for about 30 seconds. You don’t want to brown the garlic — just get it fragrant.

Next, add the butternut squash, cannellini beans, and broth. Season with salt and black pepper and bring everything to a boil.

Once it’s boiling, reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for about 18–20 minutes, or until the squash is very tender.

And this is where the magic happens.

Blend the butternut squash

Remove the pot from the heat and grab your immersion blender.

Blend the soup until the butternut squash is smooth and creamy. You can blend everything completely smooth, but I personally like leaving some of the white beans whole. It gives the soup a little texture and makes it feel heartier.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can carefully transfer some of the soup to a regular blender and blend it that way. Just be careful when blending hot liquids and work in batches if needed.

Once the soup is creamy, return it to the stove over low heat.

Add the lasagna noodles

Break your lasagna noodles into smaller pieces and add them directly to the soup.

Let them cook according to the package directions, stirring occasionally so they don’t stick together or to the bottom of the pot.

I recommend keeping an eye on the noodles toward the end of their cooking time. You want them tender but not mushy. Nobody wants lasagna soup with noodle mush.

Make it creamy

Once the noodles are cooked, reduce the heat to low and stir in the coconut milk or heavy cream and Parmesan.

Then add the shredded mozzarella and stir until it melts into the soup.

At this point, your kitchen is going to smell ridiculous.

In the best way.

How to serve it

Now comes my favorite part: toppings.

Ladle the soup into bowls and add a big spoonful of ricotta right on top. Follow it with fresh basil, extra Parmesan, crushed red pepper, and a little drizzle of olive oil.

The ricotta melts slightly into the hot soup and gives you that creamy lasagna-cheese moment in every bite.

I also love serving this with a simple green salad or some crusty gluten-free bread for dipping.

And if you’re feeding kids, you can absolutely keep the crushed red pepper off their bowls and add it to yours at the end.

Can I make this gluten-free?

Yes!

The soup itself is naturally gluten-free as long as you use a gluten-free lasagna noodle and check your other ingredients.

I make this with gluten-free lasagna noodles and they work really well. Just keep in mind that different gluten-free noodles can have slightly different cooking times, so use the package directions as your guide.

Can I make this vegetarian?

Also yes.

Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and you have a cozy vegetarian dinner.

The cannellini beans make it hearty enough that you don’t need meat in the soup, and between the beans, cheese, and noodles, it is definitely not lacking in the comfort-food department.

Can I use pre-cut butternut squash?

Please do.

If you are making this on a busy weeknight, buying pre-cut squash is one of my favorite shortcuts. Look for roughly 4 cups of cubed butternut squash.

Just make sure the pieces are relatively small — around ½-inch cubes — so they cook quickly and evenly.

A few tips for the best lasagna soup

Don’t skip the blending step. The blended butternut squash is what gives this soup its creamy texture and replaces the tomato sauce you would normally find in lasagna soup.

Keep some beans whole. I love the contrast between the smooth squash base and creamy whole cannellini beans.

Break the noodles into different-sized pieces. This is not the time to be precise. Some larger pieces and some smaller pieces make every bite a little different.

Watch the noodles. Once they’re cooked, serve the soup relatively soon. The noodles will continue absorbing liquid as they sit.

Taste before serving. Between the broth, Parmesan, and mozzarella, the soup can pick up plenty of salt, so taste and adjust at the end.

Go heavy on the toppings. Ricotta, Parmesan, basil, red pepper, olive oil — this is your moment.

Can I make this ahead of time?

You can make the soup base ahead of time, but I recommend waiting to add the lasagna noodles until you’re ready to eat.

The noodles will continue to absorb the broth as they sit, which can turn your soup into something much closer to a pasta casserole. Delicious? Maybe. Soup? Not so much.

For meal prep, make the butternut squash and bean soup base, refrigerate it, and then reheat it on the stove. Add the broken lasagna noodles and cook them fresh before serving. Then stir in the cream, Parmesan, and mozzarella.

If you already have leftover soup with noodles in it, simply add a splash of broth when reheating to loosen everything back up.

More cozy dinner recipes to make next

If you’re in your cozy dinner era, I fully support it.

This Butternut Squash & White Bean Lasagna Soup is one of those recipes that feels like comfort food but is still packed with ingredients I actually feel good about serving my family. It is creamy without being overly heavy, loaded with vegetables and beans, and has all of the cheesy lasagna flavors everyone loves.

And honestly, I think the best kind of family dinner is the one where everyone eats the same meal and nobody is asking you to make three separate dinners.

This is very much that kind of recipe.

It is easy enough for a weeknight, cozy enough for a Sunday dinner, and impressive enough that you can serve it when friends come over. Add a loaf of crusty bread, a big salad, and maybe a glass of wine for the adults and call it dinner.

No layering. No giant lasagna pan. No waiting forever for it to bake.

Just one big pot of creamy, cheesy, cozy soup.

And that, my friends, is my kind of lasagna.

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