Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup Recipe – Silky-Smooth, Comforting

Fall in Love with Rich, Delish Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup

Last week’s farmers market carrots tasted exceptionally sweet and flavorful (thank you, frost). They made a Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup to fall in love with. The fresh carrots and my high-powered blender created an amazingly silken textured, beautifully golden orange fall soup. Wanting to savor each silky-smooth mouthful, I serve Carrot Ginger Soup ungarnished.

Kissed by a Frost or Two

Root vegetables (i.e., carrots, beets, turnips, rutabagas, celeriac and parsnips), leeks, and cruciferous vegetables (i.e., cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts) all become sweeter and tastier after being kissed by a frost or two.

To counter the freezing of the water inside these plants, they produce more sugar. This allows the vegetables to survive lower temperatures without freezing. And, they then become sweeter in the process. Nice.

Having had a night of frost just before the Saturday farmers market, two beautiful bunches of carrots and a pound of leeks came home with me in my shopping basket. Thus, began the idea of Carrot Ginger soup percolating in my mind.

A positive note:  if the ground freezes before you can harvest your root vegetables, overwinter them in the ground.  As long as you pull them up as soon as the ground thaws and before they begin growing their spring leaves, they’ll be deliciously sweet and tasty.

Making Stock

For the last few years, I’ve begun saving most of my vegetable trimmings in a bag in the freezer. Leek greens, parsley stems, celery tops, limp carrots, onion peels, garlic scape buds, etc. all make it into that freezer bag.

Then, whenever I want homemade stock, most of the ingredients are already in the freezer. With the addition of a couple of bay leaves, some peppercorns, a 4” piece of kombu (seaweed), smashed garlic, sprigs of fresh thyme and water, and, a new pot of stock’s ready to roll.

Simmer everything together for 45 minutes to an hour. Strain. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 6 months.

Note: adjust the stock ingredients according to how you will use the stock. For Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup, be careful to keep it clean flavored (i.e., no corn cobs, dried mushrooms, or other strong flavored vegetables), so the flavor of the carrots and ginger come through in the finished soup.

Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup

• With carrots as the main ingredient in this soup, choose the freshest, best-tasting carrots you can find. I’ve noticed that some recipes include a bit of sugar to mimic sweet carrots.
• A food processor with a 4 mm slicing blade makes exceptionally quick work of slicing both the carrots and the leeks. Another time saver, scrub organic carrots well so there’s no need to peel them.
• For the apple, consider a sweet-tart Pink Lady apple, my husband’s favorite.
• Naturally gluten-free.
• Stocks are unseasoned. Broths contain salt. And commercial broths often contain a lot of salt. If you are using a commercial broth (versus homemade stock), reduce the amount of salt in this recipe by half. Then adjust the salt to taste at the end in Step 5.

Makes 15 cups                                             Printer-Friendly Recipe
Active time   50 minutes
Total time   1 ½ hours

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 medium (8 ounce) onion chopped into roughly ½-inch pieces (2 cups)
• 2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts only, sliced ¼ inch thick (3 cups) (use dark green leaves for stock)
• ¼ cup peeled, finely chopped fresh ginger (1 ½ ounces)
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 ¾ pounds carrots, sliced ¼ inch thick (7 cups)
• 1 large apple, peeled, chopped into roughly ½-inch pieces (2 cups)
• 12 cups unseasoned vegetable stock, preferably homemade (divided)
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a heavy Dutch oven over medium-low. When hot, stir in the onion. Cover the pot and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Raise the heat to medium. Stir in the sliced leeks, finely chopped ginger, smashed garlic and salt. Cook about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything is tender but not browned.
3. Over high heat, stir in the carrots, apple, thyme sprigs and 11 cups of the vegetable stock. The stock should cover the carrots. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer the soup until the carrots are tender, about 25 minutes.
4. Remove the thyme. Blend the soup in batches (preferably with a high-powered blender) until smooth. Add the remaining cup of stock at the very end to clean the blender jar of any soup clinging to its sides.
5. Transfer the blended soup back to the Dutch oven. Adjust the salt to your taste.
6. To maintain the silky-smooth texture, serve Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup ungarnished. Though, thinly sliced chives, chive flowers and/or scallions provide a lovely color contrast.

Printer-Friendly Recipe.