Creamy Roasted Carrot Soup
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 1, 2024
Like carrots? You’re going to love this carrot soup recipe. It’s luxuriously creamy and full of incredible roasted carrot flavor.
This classic carrot soup is a wonderful soup to serve with your favorite winter salads, sandwiches, and even holiday entrées. Since carrots go well with so many other flavors, it’s a versatile soup to keep in your repertoire.
You might be pleasantly surprised to learn that this creamy soup is actually made without cream. It’s a light and healthy soup, not to mention budget-friendly, too.
I tried making the soup with sautéed carrots instead of roasted, but roasted carrots give this soup magical powers. If you’re a fan of my butternut squash soup or cauliflower soup, the method for this recipe will be familiar already.
Since I can’t help but play around with flavors, I came up with three fun and simple variations—carrot ginger soup, curried carrot soup, and Thai curried carrot soup with lime. You’ll find details in the recipe notes. It’s about time this food blog had a proper carrot soup recipe, and it’s really four in one!
How to Make the Best Carrot Soup
You’ll find the full recipe below, but here are a few key factors.
1) Roast the carrots
Roasting the carrots condenses their flavor, which brings out the carrots’ best sweet-and-savory notes. This step makes all the difference between a ho-hum carrot soup and a why-is-this-so-good carrot soup.
2) Cook some aromatics and spices
Meanwhile, we’ll sauté some chopped onion in oil until tender. Then, we’ll add some fresh garlic, plus ground coriander and cumin. The spices make the soup taste more interesting in a subtle way. (If you’re out of coriander or cumin, though, you can omit them.) Cooking the spices in oil for about 30 seconds wakes them right up, while it mellows the garlic.
3) Simmer to bring it all together
Then, we’ll add vegetable broth, water, and the roasted carrots when they are out of the oven. We’ll gently simmer them all together for 15 minutes to bring all the flavors together.
Of note: I’ve been experimenting with using water instead of vegetable broths in soups, and I rarely miss the broth. If you’re cutting costs or watching your sodium intake, water is a great option here. I’ll share my notes on this subject in greater detail soon.
4) Blend in a stand blender
Stand blenders always yield ultra creamy results. Immersion blenders don’t come close! That’s why I always recommend blending soup in a stand blender instead. I don’t like cleaning extra dishes, either, but the resulting texture is worth the effort. You can find my favorite blenders in my Amazon shop (affiliate link).
Be careful while blending. Let the soup cool for a few minutes before transferring to a blender, never fill past the maximum fill line (it could explode), and be careful near the steam escaping from the lid (it’s hot!).
5) Finish with butter and lemon
You won’t believe how much difference a tablespoon of butter makes at the end. Once blended into the rest, it makes the soup taste more luxurious without dulling the other flavors like cream does (did you know that soups could be this creamy, without cream?). Adding some lemon juice brightens up the finished product and brings it all together.
Three Delicious Carrot Soup Variations
You know me—I couldn’t help but play around with this recipe. Here are three truly delicious variations on the “basic” recipe. Actually, let’s call the “basic” version classic instead. It does not taste boring!
1) Carrot Ginger Soup
Another classic! The carrot ginger variation is especially good if you are under the weather, or trying to warm up from the inside out. Add freshly grated ginger along with the garlic (see amounts provided in the recipe notes).
2) Curried Carrot Soup
This might be my favorite option. Simply add some Indian curry powder along with the other ground spices. Carrots and warming curry spices are a perfect match. You can also add some ginger to this variation, if you’d like.
3) Thai Curried Carrot Soup
You guessed it—add some Thai red curry paste for a lively carrot soup with irresistible Thai flavors. At the end, blend in some lime juice instead of lemon. This variation is especially beautiful when garnished with chopped peanuts and fresh cilantro leaves.
Please let me know how your soup turns out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Wondering what to pair with this carrot soup? Here are a few suggestions:
- Arugula and Wild Rice Salad with Zippy Lemon Dressing
- Farro and Kale Salad with Goat Cheese
- Green Salad with Apples, Cranberries and Pepitas
- Kale Pecan Pesto over pasta
- My Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich
- Mujadara (Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions)
Looking for more creamy, lightened-up soups? Here are a few more favorites to bookmark:
- Classic Tomato Soup (Lightened Up!)
- Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Soup
- Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Soup
- Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Watch How to Make Carrot Soup
Creamy Roasted Carrot Soup
This homemade carrot soup recipe is ultra creamy (yet cream-less) and full of rich, roasted carrot flavor! It’s the best carrot soup you’ll ever have. Recipe yields 4 bowls or 6 cups of soup.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds carrots
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt, divided, to taste
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 4 cups vegetable broth (or water)
- 2 cups water
- 1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup, if desired.
- To prepare your carrots, peel them and then cut them on the diagonal so each piece is about ½″ thick at the widest part (see photos).
- Place the carrots on the baking sheet. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and ½ teaspoon of the salt. Toss until the carrots are lightly coated in oil and seasonings. Arrange them in a single layer.
- Roast the carrots until they’re caramelized on the edges and easily pierced through by a fork, 25 to 40 minutes, tossing halfway. (Heirloom carrot varieties will roast in as little as 25 minutes, but regular carrots are more dense and typically require 35 to 40 minutes.)
- Once the carrots are almost done roasting, in a Dutch oven or soup pot, warm the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened and turning translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the garlic, coriander and cumin (if following a variation, see recipe notes for additions). Cook until fragrant while stirring constantly, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Pour in the vegetable broth and water, while scraping up any browned bits on the bottom with a wooden spoon or sturdy silicone spatula.
- Add the roasted carrots to the pot when they are out of the oven. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, to give the flavors time to meld.
- Once the soup is done cooking, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. Then, carefully transfer the hot soup to a blender, working in batches if necessary. (Do not fill past the maximum fill line or the soup could overflow!)
- Add the butter, lemon juice (or lime, if following the Thai variation), and several twists of black pepper. Blend until completely smooth. Add additional salt and pepper if necessary, to taste. Add another tablespoon of butter if you’d like more richness, or a little more lemon juice if it needs more zing. Blend again, and serve.
- This soup keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for about four days, or for several months in the freezer.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my creamy roasted cauliflower soup and roasted carrots recipe.
Carrot ginger soup variation: Add freshly grated ginger with the garlic and ground spices. Use 1 teaspoon for subtle ginger flavor, 2 teaspoons for more prominent flavor, or 1 tablespoon for relatively spicy carrot-ginger flavor.
Curried carrot soup variation: Add some curry powder with the garlic and ground spices. Use 1 teaspoon (mild) or up to 2 teaspoons (somewhat spicy), depending on your preferences. For curried ginger soup, also add 2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger at this time.
Thai curried carrot soup variation: Add Thai red curry paste with the garlic and ground spices (be sure to choose a vegan/vegetarian option if you’re avoiding fish produces, such as Thai Kitchen). Use 1 ½ teaspoons (mild) or up to 1 tablespoon (relatively spicy), depending on your preferences. Substitute lime juice for the lemon. You might like to garnish your bowls of soup with some chopped roasted peanuts and fresh cilantro leaves.
Make it dairy free/vegan: A few options. One, if you enjoy the flavor of the blended soup without butter, you can skip it altogether. For more richness, you could blend in a tablespoon of good olive oil or use cashews instead of butter. Soak ¼ cup cashews for 4 hours, then drain and rinse them (if you have a high-powered blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec, you can skip this). Add the cashews when you would add the butter.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I never leave reviews so forgive me: this is the most positively moreish thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. I’ve been following this blog since 2017 and nothing has ever disappointed but by god this is amazing. I made the ginger carrot version and I am here to tell you to also do that. This recipe is genius I’m sorry for not respecting carrots game sooner.
This is one of my new favourite soups! So easy to make and delicious! I’m just making my second batch this week. Thank you for another excellent recipe!
For me this was a very difficult recipe to balance the flavors in. I don’t know if it was just the carrots that I got or not. It tasted very bland before I put the spices in. And I always check the carrots before I start putting spices in. And it just tasted flat. Then I started putting the spices in and there still was something missing. Even when I put in the lemon juice there was still something missing. I had to put a lot of spice in here to get it balanced out far more than what the recipe called for.
This recipe is an absolute winner! I ended up making a double batch late tonight so I could bring a bowl to work in the morning, only to find my family already helping themselves! They’re loving it. I sautéed the onions in virgin olive oil with 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp curry, 4 tsps minced garlic, and ground pepper to really bring out the flavours. After roasting 4 lbs of carrots for 40 minutes on two cookie sheets, I combined everything with 10 cups of water and 4 tsps of chicken Bovril, let it simmer, then blended it smooth. Delicious and comforting, definitely going into regular rotation!
This recipe is fabulous on every level! When blending, I added a can of white navy beans; this added to the creaminess and the texture without any impact to the flavor!
So so good! I added ginger and paprika and it tasted incredible! Would definitely reccomend
Hi! I wanted to make this ahead… can it be frozen? How would you suggest to freeze it, if so?
Hi Hannah, this is a great soup to make ahead and freeze. You can use Souper Cubes, or divide into plastic freezer bags and lay fat to freeze. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then simply reheat.
Love this carrot soup! Simple easy, and delicious!
This is a terrific recipe. I have made it many times and it always comes out perfectly. Recently I needed to freeze it. Defrosted and reheated was no problem. Sometimes I serve small portions before the main dish. It keeps guests chatting and eating while I zip out to the kitchen. For a light evening meal a big bowl with some crusty bread is all you need.
Delicious. One suggestion. Instead of adding curry or ginger, I cooked the onions and garlic with (a lot of) butter and sage. Let the butter brown…Very mild flavor, but so good. And, I don’t use the chicken broth. No need for all that added sodium.
This soup is sooooo good.
Hi Kate
Thank you for this recipe. I had alot of carrots to use up so I made this today with added ginger puree. It was delicious. My only regret is I didn’t make more! Will defo make this regularly now.
Had to modify because I didn’t have everything, but turned out fantastic! I have been an immersion blender gal for a long time, with a fancy pampered chef blender that actually makes soup that I never use. I used it to make this soup and blown away by the creaminess. Can’t believe I was missing out this whole time!
This recipe is as delicious as all of the other Cookie and Kate dishes I’ve tried! One question to Kate- have you ever considered adding a link to metric measurements? (grams, etc). I live in South Africa so have to translate weights (grams) and baking temperature (Celsius). I make so many of your recipes- of course those in the opposite season ;) Thanks for all of the deliciousness!
Hi Laurie,
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed! I have a long term plan to update to metric measurements for baking recipes. Thanks for your input!
I keep looking to see if i missed any ingredients. Not that tasty?
Maybe the carrots were off
I wonder why you specify to peel the carrots?
Great recipe.
Hi Duncan, if you don’t want to peel them, just make sure they are scrubbed really well.
I have not yet made this recipe. I have a planter box full of carrots and am looking forward to trying this, but am wondering if I can add fennel. Would I roast it along with the carrots? Thank you
Hi Janelle, I think fennel would be an interesting addition! Please share how it turns out if you try it.
I don’t know why I comment on recipes here, they’re all so good. I made this with some ginger in it and I used about 3 cups of chicken stock I had (I know, this is a vegetarian site, we do use chicken stock and eat seafood in our home) and it was perfect. I used a stick blender, you don’t get the silken texture but still quite enjoyable (my “blender” is a Nutribullet which I use to make smoothies, including some of the great ones on this site), my partner also added greek yogurt to add a bit of creamy bite.
Unlike most things I cook, I stayed pretty close to this recipe so no comments on changes or substitutions, but definitely make this if you want a great summer soup.