Pumpkin soup. Such a wonderful comforting winter treat. Smooth and slightly sweet, with its warming sunny colour it’s one of those soups that can’t help but lift your spirits as the days draw short and dark.
The only problem is the pumpkin preparation. In particular hacking through that tough, tough skin. I have a really vivid memory from when I was little of my mother struggling to cut through a giant Queensland blue pumpkin. I remember thinking that this cooking thing sure looked like a lot of work. And when there’s pumpkin to prepare, I still hold that opinion.
So I can’t tell you how excited I was the other day when I sat down to a simple lunch of carrot soup only to be greeted with a steaming bowl of sunshine and sweetness with just the right amount of savouriness to balance it out. We’re talking a soup just as good as my beloved pumpkin but without the work.
To be honest I didn’t have very high hopes for this soup before I tasted it. I’d picked up a bunch of baby carrots with the intention of using them for something where they would be the star of the show. Flicking through St Nigel’s vegetable bible, there wasn’t a heap of options jumping out until I spied his carrot soup. It met the criteria for being vegetarian and showcasing my carrots. It would do.
We’re talking a soup that far exceeds expectations. And is super simple to prepare – I’d much rather make light work of chopping through scrubbed baby carrots than hacking into a pumpkin. So when you’re in the mood for some mood enhancing pumpkin soup, why not try out my baby carrot instead?
[5 ingredients]
baby carrot soup
serves 3-4
Inspired by Nigel Slater (yes – still obsessed) in Tender Volume 1 – A cook and his vegetable patch.
If you can’t get your hands on baby carrots, regular carrots will be fine. You need about 450g or 1lb carrots.
If you prefer a creamy accompaniment to your pumpkin soup, you’ll probably enjoy a little splodge of sour cream or pouring cream in this soup but to be honest it’s lovely without. I like mine with some crusty sourdough slathered in butter.
The soy sauce might seem a little odd here but it really works to bring more than just saltiness to balance out the sweet carrots.
2 brown onions, diced
1 bunch baby carrots, scrubbed, trimmed & chopped
1 x 400g (14oz) tin tomatoes
pinch dried chilli flakes, optional
2-3T soy sauce
Heat 4T olive oil in a large saucepan and cook onion over a medium heat until soft and just starting to brown. Add carrots, tomato, chilli and 3C water and bring to the boil.
Simmer until carrots are tender, approx 20 minutes.
Process until smooth with a stick blender or food processor. Add 2T soy and taste. Season with salt, pepper and extra soy if needed.
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How timely! I recently made carrot soup and decided it’s a great alternative to pumpkin soup too! I look forward to trying out your recipe next time.
Thx. so much for sharing…been looking for a simple carrot soup recipe for a long time. Here in Jamaica, pumkin soup is a year round staple but this carrot soup recipe is much easier! Thx.
What a lovely-sounding soup recipe! I adore carrots in just about any form but have not come across a carrot soup recipe that used soy sauce and did not require cream. Like you, I’d rather put the cream calories into the crusty bread & butter =;D Will be trying this out very very soon.
Fantastic. I shared it on facebook and lots of lovely comments with everyone wanting to try it this weekend, myself included.
Nice idea to use soy sauce to balance the sweetness of cooked carrots…I never tried a carrot soup, neither a pumpkin soup actually…mmm…
great minds lucent imagery!
pleasure yard edge
meg – lovely to hear from a fellow butter fan. I’ve been having a bit of a soy sauce thing for seasoning because it give more savouriness than just saltiness – part of my vegetarian month discovery
thanks for sharing it carole – glad you got some positive feedback
mika – never had pumpkin soup? wow. just skip straight to this carrot version and save yourself the hard work chopping pumpkin..
Would be easy and delicious with sweet potato too, the orange ones though, it would look a bit grim with the white ones.
Love carrot soup! Try carrot and ginger, too – the ginger gives the soup a nice kick! Same procedure, olive oil + onion + carrots + vegetable stock + ginger to your liking. You can add parsnips, too.
I’ll definitely try your version – yum!
What a great idea – I like the addition of tomatoes and soy in this recipe (the recipes for carrot soups are usually without tomatoes and it sounds rather bland). I’m also thinking about buying Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1 – glad to hear it’s good.
And a little question – how much is a bunch? 500 g?
This soup looks great. I had a tomato soup last night that was similar, and served cold. Delicious!
That sounds so delicious, as I am already a lover of pumpkin soup I know I will love this too. And NO pumpkin to wrestle with. That is the only reason I haven’t got Pumpkin Soup in the freezer at this moment.
I do feel stupid though, what is 3C Water measurement?
It’s a wonderful to see the carrots soup idea very useful.
I find the tinned tomatoes a little weird for a soup. It does look great, I would be happy to eat it.
I need to try some St Nigel inspiration – have Tender sitting around but just haven’t given it enough attention and then I see this soup and think it looks so simple and good that I must get back to that book!
I have given you an award at http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/2010/05/awards-and-kreativ-meme.html – do the meme and pass on the award if you like but no pressure if this is not your thing
I confess to having completely taken on board the love of pumpkin soup that is so prevalent here in Oz – last week I roasted two butternut squash with 3 cloves of garlic and then just pureed them with some stock and it was very close to perfection! I love the idea of trying the same process with carrots.. will get back with results!
can’t wait to hear how the roast carrots go claire
thanks johanna – memes aren’t really my thing – but you need to give st nigel some air time!
mark – st nigel actually used fresh yellow tomatoes but it’s not tomato season here – the canned ones just cook into the soup and provide a supporting back note – you could try passata or even tomato juice as well
marion
sorry for being lazy – 3C is 3 cups.
natasa
yep about 500g in a bunch
crustina
great idea with the ginger – I love it
I realized while reading the comments that no one has actually tried to make this. I just did and thought maybe I should share my experience. I am not a very experienced cook but I think the directions are also a little unclear about certain parts of the process.
The preparation was easy enough, but the problem I ran into was the actual simmering. With cutting the carrots into 4ths, it took close to 40 minutes of simmering to actually get anything close to done. Nearly all the water was cooked away by that point. I ended up having to add 3-4 more cups of water while trying to mix it just to get it to a soup consistency. The end result teetered on the edge of disaster and I ended up having to call my mother and ask for advice on how to save the dish (her answer: pour it into the blender and stop trying to make my poor stick blender struggle with carrots only 3/4ths done and add a lot more water).
However, the end result was actually pretty good. Sweet and savory were balanced and it truly held the carrot taste throughout. But if you do make this recipe, cut your carrots into very small pieces to get to the recommended time of 20 minutes and be prepared to add more water if the end result isn’t as soupy as it should be.
I just made it, and boy was it delicious!!! I went back for seconds, and my mouth is calling for thirds while my stomach protests that it’s full. The soy sauce is a great secret ingredient. I tasted the soup before adding soy, and it was just okay, but with the soy sauce, fantastic!
Shira: I didn’t have any trouble with it. Did you bring it to a full boil before simmering and then keep it covered the whole time? I had to run an errand after 18 minutes, so I turned it off, and pulsed it in the blender when I came back. My carrots were a teensy bit less done than I would have preferred, but not at all crunchy or hard to blend, and I had the same amount of liquid as when it started.
shira,
thanks so much for taking the time to share your soup experince with me. I’m so sorry you struggled with it. I now realise that I should have been more specific with the carrot chopping size – and can imagine that if you only chopped them into quarters that it would have easliy taken longer than 40 minutes to cook them.
glad to hear that you enjoyed the end result anyway.
cande
I’m glad you loved the soup – I am loving soy sauce at the moment – it makes such a difference as you noticed. and thanks for sharing your experience with the cooking process
It is delicious, mine made about 6 cup fulls. I made it exactly as the recipe but I added 1/2 teas of sugar as I always do this with tomatoes.
I did feel nervous using so much soy sauce, but now I am pleased I did.
i made it yesterday evening and didn’t talk much about the recipe
and my husband asked for more
and he is a very carnivore
it was delicious
so easy to have all ingredients at home and always able to have a bowl of soup
i adore your blog delicious recipes lovely fotos one of my daily musthaves
I add soy instead of salt to my pumpkin soup as well. It has that mysterious umami flavour. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami
My other half and I tried out this recipe recently as it was the simplest one I could find online and we didn’t have much in the house. And it was FAB – we were so impressed with the end result. We didn’t have chilli flakes, so used ground chilli powder, but made no other adjustments. Now we’re planning to make a big batch to freeze. Thanks for the recipe!
Wow, great meal.
Added 2 cloves of garlic and the result was fantastic.
Thanks !
I GET THE 4C WATER, BUT THE 4T OLIVE OIL AND 2T SOY SAUCE ESCAPES ME, IS THAT TABLESPOONS OR TEASPOONS?
hey fran
‘T’ for tablespoons and ‘t’ for teaspoons. I should stop being so lazy
thanks Jules, must remember that one. Making it tomorrow, but sounds like it’s going to be a winner.
I have left-over pasta sauce that needs thinning, it was made with broad beans, peas, ricotta, parmesan and lemon juice. Any ideas? Thanks, Fran, By the way, carrot soup was fantastic, have given it to all the girls in my family. Thanks again.
I loved it! I have even posted it on my blog! http://deaugustibus.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/super-simple-carrot-soup-by-stonesoup/
awesome
De(au)Gustibus
thanks for the link! glad you enjoted
sorry fran
missed seeing this comment.
I’d just use some of the cooking water from your pasta to help thin a sauce or possibly a little cream if you want to keep it more rich.
amd so glad you liked the soup!
Hi Jules,
I was just searching for a good carrot soup recipe and found your eye-catching blog. I’m cooking the soup now and I will definitely be returning! In the meantime, I wanted to pass on a tip for dealing easily with pumpkins. In Australia we often put a whole, unpeeled pumpkin in the oven (at around 190 c, I think) until a knife slides in and out easily. After it cools, you can scoop out the flesh with a spoon. No hacking! No breaking a sweat! It also gives your soup a delicious, roasty flavour.
Christina
LOVE the idea of roasting a whole pumpkin – can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself!
Absolutely Loved this soup. Will be making it often. Thanks so much.
Thanks Lorrie
It’s a goodie for sure!
This looks so delicious and your site is awesome! I tried this tonight, added a few other spices: cumin, cayenne, and basil. I have a pretty spicy palette so it was a welcomed, heated addition. Thanks for posting!
excellent michael
your additions sound really lovely
I made a very similar recipe the other day except I used honey and fresh thyme. This is the perfect recipe when you have extra carrots laying around.
Here is my recipe: http://www.handmeafork.com/2011/02/honey-carrot-soup.html
uper easy to make and tastes like your classic pumpkin soup. … Also added one grated carrot, and swapped one potato for a kumara/sweet potato, for extra sweet flavour.
n our all-new travel section, we spend a day in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Super easy to make and tastes like your classic pumpkin soup. Yum! Also added one grated carrot, and swapped one potato for a kumara/sweet potato.
Brown onions? Here in California, I’m familiar with red/purple, white and yellow onions. Could brown onions be another name for shallots possibly?
jed – they’re just yellow onions ;)
love love love! this recipe. I’ve been looking for a cheap, go-to soup recipe for awhile.
this one definitely won’t break the bank, and its super delicious!
hi jules,
i mixed in a teaspoon of miso in afterwards. we had a stem of ginger and a few cherry tomatoes, so i sauteed that in with a handful of shallots and red onions.
currently adding it to the vitamix, with yesterdays yam
yum! (i hope)
amy!
loving the idea of the miso ginger and shallots… hope it tastes as good as it sounds
Just a variation- I use a processor as I can control the “particle size” of the soup better – don’t like the sludge a stab blender creates- this reduces the need to cook cook cook the carrots and gives texture to the soup,
very good way to use surplus carrots if your crop turns out better than expected
good point mark!
I’ve been experimenting with grating the carrots in the food processor first and it works well
I tried this recipe and really loved it! I had a big pile of fresh carrots (not baby carrots) and found this recipe. I pulled out an onion and a half I had sitting around.
Two questions: 1) How big are the onions you used? (Mine were a big vidalia onions) 2) do you use salted or unsalted canned tomatoes?
At first I thought that 5 ingredients was very limiting, but then I really appreciate not having to hunt around for ingredients that I never have.
HI Simon
Just regular sized brown (yellow) onions.
ANd my tomatoes are canned in tomato juice. No salt listed on the label.
That’s the thing with 5 ingredients – it makes life easier and not necessarily less delicious
Marion 3C is 3 Cups
Yum! I made this today and loved it! I am a pumpkin soup disliker and I am so pleased I have found a yummy alternative!
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