Roasted Carrot Soup Recipe

Roasted carrot soup sounds fancy, right? While this looks very fancy and pretty in a bowl, it's definitely not hard to make on your own. There are minimal ingredients involved, and the recipe is also dairy-free and can be made vegan to boot (just use veggie broth). This roasted carrot soup is courtesy of Susan Olayinka, the creator of The Flexible Fridge, an excellent resource for wholesome recipes. "What inspired me for this recipe is my love for soups. I find that soups are the easiest way to pack in lots of nutrient-packed vegetables into your diet," reports Olayinka, "and I do prefer carrots roasted as well!"

To execute this dish in your own kitchen, you'll need a sheet pan, a large pot, and a high-speed blender. This roasted carrot soup recipe makes three servings, so if you want to have more than that when it's all said and done, be sure to double the ingredients.

We like to get all our ingredients out and visible prior to cooking. This roasted carrot soup recipe calls for six medium carrots (or five cups of chopped carrots), one onion, one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, a quarter teaspoon of oregano, half a teaspoon of salt, a quarter of a teaspoon of garlic powder, an eighth of a teaspoon of pepper, one and a half cups of chicken broth, and a dried bay leaf.

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Also have a large stoup pot or Dutch oven ready by the stovetop. After you roast the veggies and before you blend everything together for the final product, it will all need to simmer in the pot for a bit.

While the oven heats up, prepare the carrots for roasting. Wash the carrots, then slice them into one-inch discs. If you're using baby carrots, roughly chop them. Place the diced carrots onto a baking tray. The chopping is key, but you don't have to do it perfectly since these carrots are going to be roasted, simmered, then eventually blended into a purée.

Why do you have to complete this step prior to cooking the roasted carrot soup on the stove? According to Olayinka, "Roasting the carrots enables this soup to be that much more flavorful." Bland carrots equals bland soup, and nobody wants bland soup.

We're sorry this roasted carrot soup requires you to chop an onion, but like the carrots in the previous step, rest assured it's a rough chop, so you won't be sobbing for hours as you dice an onion into a million little pieces. A few hunks of onion will do the trick since, again, these onions will be headed to pot then a blender after the get roasted in the oven.

Once you're done peeling and chopping the onion, add it to the baking sheet with the carrots. Again, a few hunks of onion should suffice, as demonstrated in the process photo shown here.

After you have chopped the onions and carrots for the roasted carrot soup, it's time to properly season them before they go into the oven for roasting. 

Pour the tablespoon of olive oil over the carrots and onions, then on sprinkle the oregano, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Next, use your hands to coat the carrots and onions really well with the oil and spices. This mixture will lend your veggies a lot of flavor, so you want to make sure it's really covering every surface of the chopped onion and carrots. You can add more salt and pepper later if you think it needs it.

Once your veggies have been thoroughly coated with the oil and spices, they're ready to be roasted. Put the sheet pan of onions and carrots in the oven, and bake them for 25 minutes. 

It's worth noting again that this roasting step is crucial, especially for the carrots. Olayinka reiterates, "Roasting the carrots makes them slightly more flavorful and sweeter and gives them more depth." It will also make your kitchen smell incredible, so it's a win all the way around.

After the carrots and onion have finished roasting, it's time to move on to the stovetop portion of this roasted carrot soup recipe. Take the sheet pan of carrots and onions out of the oven and carefully transfer the vegetables to the large pot or Dutch oven. Add the one and half cups of chicken broth to the pot along with the solo bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Transfer the pot to your stovetop. You can leave the lid off, as the following step will not take you very long.

This next step doesn't take much time at all, so plan to stay close to the stove for it. After transferring the roasted carrots and onions to a pot then adding the chicken broth and a bay leaf, cook everything on a low-medium heat on the stove for about five minutes. 

This step in the roasted carrot soup recipe is primarily to heat the broth up since the onions and carrots should still be pretty steamy from their time in the oven. Stir occasionally as the broth heads up, and immediately reduce the heat if the liquid starts to boil too much.

Remove the bay leaf and place the contents of the pot into a blender. Blend the soup on the high speed setting for about 30 seconds.  A high-speed blender like a Ninja or Vitamix is ideal for this step.

Per Olayinka, "the roasted carrot soup could be cooled between cooking and blending." If you don't have time to wait for the soup to cool, put a dish towel over the top of the blender as you blend. This will help if any of the hot liquid wants to splatter out of the top. Or you can use Olayinka's tip: "I lifted part of my blender up and just put a plate there so that it wouldn't splatter."

Once the roasted carrot soup has been puréed in the blender, it's ready to eat. Top the soup with parsley for an optional garnish, and enjoy! If a parsley garnish isn't your jam, Oliyanka tells us, "Another garnish would be any other herb such as coriander, basil, thyme, or I love to have mine with some crispy onions." 

Also, don't forget the bread. After all, you'll want some carbs to soak up all that veggie goodness. According to Olayinka, "Crusty bread is the best. Pair with butter!" Honestly though, who would forget the bread?