This Carrot and Orange Soup is one of my favorite gluten free soup recipes for brighting up cold days. It’s creamy, sweet and a little bit spicy. You can make it on the stovetop, instant pot or crock pot!
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Your guests will never believe that there’s no cream in it! Everyone is going to want the recipe for this detoxifying and yet delectable dish.
When September rolled around I wasn’t ready to shift gears into fall recipes. It was still hot out and tomato season hits it’s peek in September in New Jersey. I was still enjoying heirloom tomatoes over simple salads with, goats cheese and red apple balsamic vinegar.
Summer felt like the biggest gift after being cooped up inside during lockdown. When you’re out in nature under a shining sun, social distancing doesn’t seem all that bad. But irregardless of my desire to pause time, the leaves are turning and autumn in full swing in the north east. I’ve embraced the change with this perfect harvest soup… Let’s get into it.
Why You’ll Love Carrot and Orange Soup
- Gluten Free
- Nut Free
- Paleo
- Vegan
- Easy to Make
- One Pot Dish
What Ingredients Do you Need for Vegan Carrot Orange Soup?
- Coconut Oil
- Onions
- Garlic
- Carrots
- Fresh Ginger
- Cumin
- Cinnamon
- Cayenne Pepper
- Sweet Potatoes
- Apple (optional)
- Blood Orange
- Vegetable Stock
- Coconut Milk
How to Make Carrot Orange Soup
Step 1: In a Large Dutch Oven or Soup Pot heat the Coconut Oil. While the oil is heating up chop up the onions. You don’t need to be particular about how you chop since the soup will be blended. Add the onion and salt to the pot and cook them until they’re translucent. Try not to let them burn because this will make the soup bitter. Once the onions are cooked add the garlic, ginger, cumin, cinnamon and salt. Cook for another few minutes to allow the spices to bloom. (More about blooming spices in the section below).
NOTE: Don’t burn the garlic. If you burn fresh garlic you might as well start over. Or the whole dish will be doomed. Make sure to stir often and lower the heat if you have to.
Step 2: Once the ginger and spices become fragrant add the roughly chopped carrots, sweet potatoes, apple and vegetable stock. Raise the heat to medium high and bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat until the soup is simmering. (Simmering is when you see rapid little bubbles vs. boiling which produces large rolling bubbles). Allow the soup to simmer covered for 20 minutes or until the carrots are cooked through.
Step 3: Using a Vitamix, high speed blender or immersion blender, blend the soup until it’s creamy. Stir in the coconut milk and add a tsp of vinegar and cayenne pepper. Enjoy!
How to Make Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup on the Stove Top
Carrot soup is easy to make on the stovetop. Making carrot soup on the stove top is my favorite way to cook carrot soup because you don’t need any special equipment. Not to mention that I get to use my favorite Le Creuset’s Cast Iron Round Dutch Oven.
To make carrot soup on the stove top simply follow the instructions in the recipe card! Add all of the ingredients to the soup pot as you normally would. Once you add the vegetable stock or water bring the soup to a boil by placing the lid on the pot and turning the heat up to medium high.
The soup should take 5 minus to bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, lower the heat to medium low so that the soup simmers. You want the soup to simmer for 10 minutes or so. YOu’ll know it’s simmering when you see lots of tiny bubbles that move really fast. When the soup is boiling you’ll see larger rolling bubbles on only one side of the pot.
After 20 minutes of simmering has passed make sure the soup is done cooking by checking to see if the sweet potatoes are soft by piercing them with a fork. Then turn off the heat and finish cooking the soup according to the recipe instructions.
How to Make Vegan Carrot Orange Soup in the Crock Pot
If you don’t want to babysit your soup and just set it and forget it, the best way to cook soup is in the crockpot. You can slowly cook the carrot soup safely In the crockpot all day while you are at work! Simply add all of the ingredients to the bottom of the crockpot and allow it to cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours.
How to Make Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup in the Instant Pot
If you have zero patience then cooking vegan carrot soup in an instant pot is the way to go! Just make sure to have all of your ingredients prepped and ready before you start. The instant pot cooks fast so the cooking steps will come up quickly! You won’t have time to prep ingredients while the soup is cooking.
Prior to cooking, turn the instant pot onto the “saute” setting. Follow the recipe as you normally would. Add the oil, onions, garlic and vegetables to the pot and saute as the recipe instructs. Once you add the stock put the lid on the instant pot and set the cook mode to high pressure for five minutes. Once the cook cycle is done let the soup stand for 10 minutes before you blend it.
Tips for Making the Best Carrot and Orange Soup
- Bloom the Spices
(Spices both dry and fresh are called aromatics). Aromatics become more flavorful when heat is applied. So adding the spices directly to the pot brings out their flavor!
2. Use a Powerful Blender: To make restaurant quality soup you need to use a powerful blender that will create a perfectly smooth emulsion. Most blenders aren’t that powerful and create nothing better than a “chunky” soup. I like the Vitamix blender the best. It’s expensive but it’s worth every penny. I’ve had mine for ten years and it’s still going strong. Cheap blenders leave chunks in the soup.
Equipment for Vegan Carrot and Orange Soup
- Large Dutch Oven like this ridiculously well priced one from amazon
- Soup Pot
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- High Speed Blender
- Immersion Blender
Ingredient Substitutions for Carrot and Orange Soup
- Onions: You can use any type of onion or shallot aside from red onions.
- Sweet Potatoes: This soup will also work with russet or white potatoes. I prefer using sweet potatoes because they are better for detox and gut health.
- Apple: The soup is still tasty without apple but any type will work. I like using macintosh or gala.
- Coconut Oil – Any oil or butter will work just be aware and use an oil with a high smoke point like safflower oil.
- Cayenne Pepper – Black pepper works well too.
How to Can Gluten Free Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup
Carrot soup has tons of health benefits. First of all it’s anti-inflammatory. This carrot and orange soup doesn’t have any animal products, gluten or grains that can cause inflammation. But beware that there is a lot of natural sugar in carrots. If you’re on a low sugar diet this soup isn’t for you!
So it’s perfect for those following an anti-inflammatory diet or for those with chronic joint pain. Carrots are also filled with vitamins like A and beta carotene which is good for eye sight and can lower your risk of diabetes. Carrot soup is also great for bone health since it is full of calcium and vitamin K.
The sweet potatoes and oranges in this carrot soup also have tons of vitamin A which is also good for your skin. Consuming carrot soup could turn your skin a little orange which looks like a healthy tan.
Yes carrot soup is good for the eyes because it has beta carotene in it.
It takes carrots anywhere from 4 to 16 minutes to boil depending on their size. Whole carrots can take 10-15 minutes to boil while small pieces take only four minutes. Since you usually would chop up carrots before adding them to soup they will take 6 to 10 minutes to cook through.
Carrot soup has tons of health benefits. First of all it’s anti-inflammatory. This carrot and orange soup doesn’t have any animal products, gluten or grains that can cause inflammation.
So it’s perfect for those following an anti-inflammatory diet or for those with chronic joint pain. Carrots are also filled with vitamins like A and beta carotene which is good for eye sight and can lower your risk of diabetes. Carrot soup is also great for bone health since it is full of calcium and vitamin K.
The sweet potatoes and oranges in this carrot soup also have tons of vitamin A which is also good for your skin. Consuming carrot soup could turn your skin a little orange which looks like a healthy tan.
Your carrot soup might taste bitter because the carrots you used have terpenoids. Terpenoids develop earlier in carrot roots than the sugar so carrots that are picked too early will taste soapy and bitter vs. carrots that were allowed to ripen in the ground for longer. Certain varieties of carrots have more terpenoids than others.
Storing carrots the wrong way will also make them bitter by encouraging them to produce more terpenoids. Carrots should be stored in a perforated plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the fridge for short periods of time without the leaves. Don’t keep carrots next to other fruits because the gases they give off will also cause the carrots to get bitter.
At the end of the day. The longer you leave carrots in the fridge the more bitter they will become. It’s best to use the carrots within one week of purchasing.
There are a few ways to help combat the bitterness in carrot soup.
1. You can cook the carrots for a longer period of time. The longer you cook carrots the more the natural sugars caramelize and the sweeter they taste. Cook them at a low temperature to make sure that they don’t burn.
2. To combat bitterness in carrot soup you can also add more sweetness to it. In orange and carrot soup I added orange and apple so that no matter how many terpenoids are in the carrots it will still taste nice and sweet. You can also add maple syrup, agave or honey to any carrot soup recipe to take the bitterness out.
Absolutely, you can use frozen carrots in soup. If you use frozen carrots in carrot and orange soup simply cook the soup until the sweet potatoes are soft instead of until the carrots are soft like the instructions say to do.
No you don’t have to cook the carrots before putting them in soup for this recipe. Some carrot soup recipes do suggest roasting the carrots in the oven before putting them into the soup. Cooking carrots in the oven before using them in soup is a great way to intensify the flavor. Cooking the carrots caramelizes the natural sugars in the carrot and makes them sweeter. This carrot orange soup recipe has tons of flavor from the sweet potatoes and apple so it is not necessary to cook the carrots.
More Gluten Free & Vegan Soup Recipes to Try
- Curried Cauliflower Soup
- Vegan Split Pea Soup
- Fire Roasted Tomato Soup
- Miso Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms
- Gluten Free Tomato Soup
- Gluten Free Cream of Mushroom Soup
How to Store Vegan Carrot Orange Soup
- Refrigerator – This carrot and orange soup will last 1 week in the fridge!
- Freezer – You can freeze carrot and orange soup for up to six months!
- Make Ahead Lunches – I like storing curried carrot soup in individual mason jars for convenient single servings. They just look so appetizing in a mason jar!
Orange and Carrot Soup Serving Suggestions
This orange and carrot soup is best served as a starter with other gluten free dishes. Like with a fall or winter themed main course and salad. My favorite way to serve this elegant soup is for dinner with this Brussels sprouts Salad and Vegan Sweet Potato Gnocchi to create an entirely vegan and gluten free meal with lots of plant based ingredients!
Carrot and Orange Soup
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- 4 Quart Soup Pot
- Vitamix or Immersion Blender
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 large Onion
- 4 cloves Garlic chopped
- 2 tbsp Fresh Ginger peeled and chopped
- 1.5 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 3 1/2 C Carrots (1 pound or 5 medium sized carrots) peeled and chopped
- 1 C Sweet Potato (1 large) peeled and chopped
- 1 Apple chopped (optional)
- 4 C Vegetable Stock 1 box
- 1 Can Coconut Milk light coconut milk also works
- 1/4 tsp Cayanne Pepper
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar or Lemon Juice (optional) brightens soup
Instructions
- Heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and season with salt. Saute until translucent. Next add the garlic, ginger, cumin, cinnamon and salt. Allow spices to bloom for 1 minute.
- Add the carrots, sweet potatoes, apple and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer with the lid ajar over medium low heat for 15-20 minutes. Until the carrots are cooked through.
- Blend until smooth. Stir in the coconut milk, apple cider vinegar and cayanne pepper. Enjoy!
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Taleen | Just As Tasty says
I’m so intrigued by these flavors! I love trying new soup recipes so I’ll be pinning this!
Maren Epstein says
Thank you! I hope you get to try it!
Maren Epstein says
Let me know how you like it! Thanks for dropping a line <3
Sanna says
What a lovely recipe!! I’m definitely trying it out.
Maren Epstein says
Let me know how it comes out!
Maren Epstein says
thank you Sanna!