- 5 cups of peeled, cubed cushaw or other winter squash
- 1 medium potato peeled and cubed
- 1½ cups water
- 1½ cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
Combine water and chicken stock in a sauce pot and add potato, squash, and salt. Cook for about 45 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Mash vegetable with potato masher or spoon to desired consistency. Add cream and cook for 3 minutes. Goes wonderfully well with a cake of cornbread.
NOTE: This soup keeps very well in the refrigerator and is as good warmed up as when it was first made.
TIP: Cooked soup can also be blended for a smoother consistency.
TP
—Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food written by Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley
This cushaw soup recipe is one we enjoy. It is very simple and light compared to many of the other soups and stews we enjoy. The recipe also works well with pumpkin, candy roaster, and other winter squash.
I used to make a big batch of it and then Matt and I would take it to work for our lunch. The soup is good with crackers but is even better with a piece of cornbread.
Our winter squash harvest was pitiful this year! I’m hoping next year is much better.
We love the taste of winter squash, but I especially love the ease of putting them up. Most of the time, once cured, they will last up to a year if kept dry. Doesn’t get any easier than that when it comes to food preservation.
Last night’s video: Good Eating & 2026 Plans for Celebrating Appalachia.
Tipper
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This soup sounds like a wonderful recipe for a cold winter’s day. Yummy. Thanks Miss Tipper and God bless y’all.
There’s nothing nicer than cutting into a candy roaster in February! That lovely aroma – it’s like Summer all over again. Thank you so much for writing about them years ago, Tipper – I’ve grown them every year since.
which variety do you raise?
When I was a kid we grew punkins in the cornfield alongside the corn and beans (or peas). I helped grow them and store them but I wouldn’t eat any of it. Our neighbors grew cushaws and punkins kinda like in competition with us. I didn’t pay any attention to it. I’ve never had any interest in growing any type of squash except the pale yellow summer one.
I’ve never tried cushaw, but I’m not a big fan of winter squash; something about the texture. Instead, I just made a batch of sweet potato soup from a Whole 30 recipe. Very similar to butternut squash soup, but sweet potatoes are my go-to winter vegetable.
I have never had this soup. Really sounds tasty and worth trying.
YUMMY.
Kathy Patterson
I’m not too sure I’d be a fan of the soup, but I never have tried it. HOWEVER, I got treated a piece of Cushaw pie while visiting a family at Thanksgiving. That pie was unforgettably tasty!
Sandi, My precious Mother would make a Cushaw Pie just like she did her Trading Post Peanut Butter Pie. The only difference was that she used 2 heaping T of mashed and cooked cushaw, instead of 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. My grandson was around 6 at that Holiday gathering and chose the Cushaw Pie over the peanut butter. Mother had made them both…a Big hit!!
This soup sounds so good . Hopefully I can find the squash at my grocery store!
Have a wonderful day! Prayers for your beautiful mom❣️
Sounds & looks wonderful! Perfect for a winter day ! Love & prayers for all !
I’ve never made this soup, but it sounds delicious and perfect for this time of year.
I hope everyone has a blessed day!
My family never tried growing any winter squash with the exception of growing butternut squash for a year or two. The only thing I remember was mother making pies out them that were very similar to a sweet potato pie. I saw something this morning that made me look twice. This unusual (record breaking) warm weather we have been having has got my daffodils coming up. I saw some this morning that were about 2 inches high. I used to like the colder weather but something has changed, now my bones are liking this warmer weather better. A young smart aleck said I was getting old. He didn’t show a bit of respect for his elders! I would have taught him a little respect and kicked something about waist high on him if I could have raised my leg and foot that high! I wonder if I could have got him to squat down.
Remember, cushaws, like a lot of other squashes/pumpkins, produce seeds that can also be consumed if you know how to process them right. You get a nice soup one night, and a salad topping some other night.
I have never even heard of cushaw winter squash. The recipe sounds yummy.
As always praying for Granny!
Me too, Sherri! I have seen it in local grocery stores though. I like to stuff winter squashes, especially acorn squash, with country sausage, mushrooms, onions, and herbs.
Tipper, I probably shouldn’t do this but … yesterday I read about Berlin Seed of Millersburg, OH (Amish country). I visited their online store this AM and they have 553 kinds of seed. I know how it is for a gardener; wanting to try them all and can’t. I’ll be sorry if sharing this is a trouble to you. I understand about sticking with the tried and true and staying within the limits of space, time, energy and needs. But in spite of that, I still thought you would find it useful to know about another source for hard-to-find varieties you all already know you like. Meantime, if you post all the other “acorns” will be aware of Berlin seed also. This is the mooning over garden catalogs time of year.
Ron-thank you! I know I will enjoy their offerings 🙂
Good morning Tipper! Any kind of soup is a hit with me, so fast and easy to make. It’s always nice on a cold winter day and way up north (Alberta) we’ve been living in a deep freeze for a long time now. The best soup is when your fridge needs cleaning out, you get an amazing vegetable chowder soup. Very satisfying! Have a wonderful day everyone!
Your soup sounds delicious.
Yum! I’m definitely going to try this. ☺️. You were right about the dates. . I love butternut squash soup but never put potato or chicken stock. Stay tuned …
Your soup recipe sounds yummy. I would have to buy some winter squash to make it because we only grew a very few small pie pumpkins last year. I love all kinds of soup. I have some fresh broccoli in my fridge and I plan to try a recipe I have for broccoli soup today. I also plan to make a pot of vegetable beef soup this week. The temperatures are gonna warm up today. The snow covering our yard will melt away soon. Happily, the grandchildren got to go sledding with their daddy yesterday. They had a blast!
Good Morning GOD, Tipper, Matt and Acorns. I hope everyone got some restful sleep. I sure did. Your Squash Soup looks so good Tipper. I have never eaten Cushaw but I do have one Butternut. I’m going to give your recipe a try. I’m like Debbie and always add apple. Mine will be a 1/3 of a recipe because my squash isn’t very big, nowhere near 5 cups. I’ll try to look around and see if I can find a Cushaw. I went to town Friday to do my monthly shopping and forgot to pick up my pharmacy. I gotta go back today. I gathered the trash this morning and took it out to be picked up. I stripped my bed and my machine washed them for me. I strung a line in 2 screws across the kitchen and living room (about 20 feet) and hung the sheets, blanket and pillow cases on it. They should be dry by tonite. It has been a busy morning. Ed got up sick to his stomach and shaking bad so he took some medicine and went back to bed. He will sleep most of the day now. He goes to his Gastroenterologist tomorrow. I’ll have to get him sedated for the ride cause he gets car sick now. I’m saying extra prayers for Christians world wide. We need to Make sure we are following all of GOD’s Commandments. We need to be ready for HIS Plan. We need to trust in HIM and have no fear of the things of this world. Stand strong with the full Armor of GOD. I keep all of you in my prayers. Remember to Pray Continuously. I ‘love Y’all.
My favorite winter squash is buttercup (not to be mistaken for butternut). This cushaw soup recipe sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing it with us, Tipper!
My eastern Ky parents loved all types of squash and planted Cushaws every year. They liked them cooked, baked, fried. Mom froze them too; I don’t remember her canning them although she could have. My family and I don’t like squash, but my daughter does. She developed a taste for it when she married her husband who is from Roanoke, Va. Her mother-in-law made it and she loved it.
My Grandma grew cushaws but many people don’t know what they are. One thing about them, they are so big you need a bunch of hungry people. I think you pinpointed a good reason they were once way more commonly grown. They would keep through the winter with only minimal protection. Somehow I never got into the squash and pumpkin soups, probably because I never had them as a child. Maybe it was because of lack of garden space but we never grew winter squash or pumpkins. By the time corn, beans and potatoes were planted there wasn’t a lot of room left for vining plants.
The soup sounds wonderful and warm! I thank the Lord for all the wonderful veggies he provides. I was considering a rather restrictive diet once but nixed it when they said you had to stop eating potatoes. Two things I’ll not give up without a fight is black coffee and potatoes! Prayer to all the acorns and the Pressley, Wilson and Graddick families.
The cushaw squash I tried growing 2 summers ago, did not do well. I must have been the seeds. I had trouble getting them to come up and then trouble storing them. Switched back to butternut last summer and they did good. Knock on wood, they seem to be keeping well. All the winter squash make great pies, soups, and are good roasted.
I love soups. I have never added a potato to mine as I always add an apple. I’ll be trying yours too! So good! I have some butternut and acorn I need to use so I will try the potato in one of those.
Have a blessed day!
God bless you friends pray for me today I’m trying to get arrangements made to see another doctor, thank you and God bless you, God bless the Wilson and Pressley family, enjoy your soup!!