Creamy Carrot Soup Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How can I make my soup more creamy? ›

The best options for thickening soup are cream or half and half. Plain yogurt or even freshly grated cheese works well and adds an extra layer of tangy, salty flavor. Add the dairy at the end and avoid bringing the soup to a boil since this can cause yogurt, cheese, or cream to split.

Why is my carrot soup bland? You may need to add more salt and pepper. I like to taste the soup along the way, and if it needs some salt or pepper, I'll add it. Don't be shy!

Whether you use a few tablespoons or a few cups, cream gives soup a silky mouthfeel and rich flavor. You can definitely add milk or other dairy as well, though it will taste gradually less creamy as you go down in percent.

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onions, carrots and garlic, sauté for 4 mins, until they are beginning to soften but not colour. Stir in the ground coriander and plenty of seasoning and cook for 1 min. Add the stock and bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 mins or until the carrots are really tender.

There's classic heavy cream, of course, which makes soups like our creamy tomato Parm soup and our cream of broccoli soup extra delicious. Another great (and non-dairy) option is coconut milk.

this is the easiest hack for thickening soups stews sauces and it does it instantly. instead of a roux or flour use cornstarch or arrowroot . equal parts water to cornstarch and arrowroot. mix that up and then you add it to simmering sauce or whatever.

Overcooking the vegetables

Let's say you're making white bean soup. Start by sautéing onions, garlic, maybe celery, then adding the water and beans, and simmering. Add the carrots in the last half hour or so or when the beans are close to tender. That way the carrots will come out cooked but not mushy.

Add flour or cornflour

Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes to allow the starch granules to burst to thicken, and to cook out any flour flavour.

"The majority of issues with a creamy soup come from undercooking the vegetables," explains Rick Martinez, associate food editor at BA. They should be uniformly soft, with no resistance or "bite"—otherwise, they will not stand up to the blender. You'll be left with a soup that's watery in portions and lumpy in others.

And have your soup and slurp it, too. Oh, and don't forget 1/4 to 1/2 cup of heavy cream. You won't be sorry. (You can do half-and-half instead…but do add one or the other.

When to add cream to soup? ›

If you started the soup with broth, stock or water, I would wait until the end to add the cream. You can warm the cream, or “temper” it, which is what I do. Take about half a cup of the hot broth and slowly add your cream to that, stirring constantly.

Yogurt, Sour Cream, and Crème Fraîche – Dairy like yogurt, sour cream, and crème fraîche can add a creamy acidity to soups, but can curdle and be unpleasant if cooked over heat for too long, so swirl these in last.

While certain vegetables can work just fine added directly to simmering soups and stews (say, carrots and celery), other vegetables (onions, garlic, and the like) will almost always need at least a brief sweat in a fat-based liquid before adding the remaining ingredients.

Carrots are loaded with nutrition, including fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C and calcium. And while it's true that carrots are good for eye health, their antioxidants also help protect your heart, skin, brain and immune system while reducing inflammation.

A common mistake is to not run the blender long enough. This results in a grainy-textured soup. The soup should be blended long enough to create a silky-smooth texture. Once the soup has been fully blended, it can also be strained through a fine mesh strainer to ensure any skins or tough fibers are removed.

The consistency can be adjusted by adding stock or water if it's too thick, or if it's too thin either simmer it on the stove or add roux or a slurry of refined starch (cornstarch, potato starch).

Foods like rice, bread, potatoes and beans are naturally high in starches, which, when broken down, act as a thickening agent. With rice, the grains will break down into the soup as it's simmered and stirred, releasing the starches and thickening the soup.

"If your broth is lacking in savory richness, try adding roasted onion, tomato paste, mushrooms, seaweed, soy sauce, or miso. These ingredients add umami flavor and depth to broth," she says. The choice of ingredient depends on the recipe, though.