5-Ingredient Roasted Carrot Ginger Soup
I created this roasted carrot soup recipe nearly four years ago, and still make it constantly in fall and winter months. It’s so utterly simple yet so rich and full of flavor. Roasting the carrots brings out the nuances, and the ginger adds a nice little punch. A finish of cream or coconut milk seals the deal. I recently took new photos and added a video to this recipe post and thought it was high time to share it again.
Make this soup! You won’t regret it.
—
We celebrated our daughter’s second (!!!) (?!!) birthday with a party recently, and I have a confession to make. I bought the cake at Costco.
I also bought the cookies, the hummus, and the crackers from Costco. And a huge bag of baby carrots. So easy.
See, I’m discovering a weird side effect of being a food blogger. The busier I get at this blogging job of mine – the job that is the result of my passion for making home-cooked meals, photographing them, and sharing the recipes – the less homemade actual food I have time to make for my family. Or, yeah, for birthday parties.
That’s one of the reasons I’m vowing to keep it simpler in the new year – both here and in life.
This recipe is a direct result of both my resolution and the birthday party: we had a ton of leftover baby carrots. So I put ’em to work in a recipe for a super-simple, slightly sweet, wonderfully creamy roasted carrot soup. (No need to feel restricted to baby carrots for this one, of course. Feel free to use any kind of carrots you have on hand!)
I had a hunch that this roasted carrot soup wouldn’t need anything other than just a handful of the simplest ingredients: onions, vegetable stock, ginger, cream (or coconut milk), and, of course, carrots.
Happily, my hunch paid off in the form of a richly hued, zingy little soup that I truly think would hold its own among those with twice the ingredients, or more.
Roasting the carrots in olive oil, kosher salt, and black pepper; cooking the onions just to the point of browning; simmering the ginger – each step helps to maximize the flavor of each ingredient. And then, of course, the ingredients all work together. I mean, carrot + ginger = a match made in heaven right there.
And our busy lives + this (homemade!) soup = another match made in heaven.
P.S.: If you count the ingredients, you’ll actually find eight – but I don’t include the salt, pepper, or oil in the official tally. Convenient for me! 😉
Like recipe videos? Hit “play” for the, er, play-by-play! Or scroll right on past for the recipe. Or both! The world is your roasted carrot soup.

5-Ingredient Roasted Carrot Ginger Soup
Roasting the carrots brings a nice boost of flavor to this super-simple, scrumptious vegetarian soup. Just substitute coconut milk for the heavy whipped cream to make it vegan.
Ingredients:
- 6 cups baby carrots or approx. 6 large carrots peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds of carrots)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 medium yellow onions, diced (about 4 cups)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt + more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper + more to taste
- 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced (about 2 tablespoons)
- 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (for vegan version, use full-fat canned coconut milk)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place carrots in a large bowl and drizzle one tablespoon of the olive oil over the top. Toss to coat and add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Toss again. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed cookie sheet and bake, stirring/flipping every 15 minutes or so, until tender and browned in spots, about 40 minutes total. Remove from oven and let cool a bit.
- While the carrots are cooking, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook until just beginning to brown, about 8 – 10 minutes. Add the ginger and the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for five minutes until ginger is tender. Remove from heat.
- When both the roasted carrots and the broth have cooled somewhat, add the carrots to the broth. Working with a blender in batches, puree the soup and return it to the pot; or use an immersion blender directly in the pot. Please make sure your soup has cooled enough to safely puree!
- Place pureed soup over medium heat and return to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and stir in the heavy whipping cream. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if desired. Serve.
Vegan option:
Use canned coconut milk in place of the heavy whipping cream (I actually like this version better than the original!)
Nutrition Information
Yield: 4 servings, Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
- Amount Per Serving:
- Calories: 268 Calories
- Total Fat: 21g
- Saturated Fat: 8g
- Cholesterol: 41mg
- Sodium: 825mg
- Carbohydrates: 26g
- Fiber: 5g
- Sugar: 11g
- Protein: 2g
Originally published January 30, 2014. Updated September 28, 2017.
I totally feel ya with the homemade stuff! I certainly take the time to make extravagant stuff for myself and the blog but by the end of it I’m much less excited to continue to do so for all meals for everyone haha
And this looks delicious and SO simple. Perfect for a busy life. It’s easily adaptable for a vegan soup as well!
You shouldn’t feel one bit guilty about buying a store-bought cake. I did the same thing this weekend even though, like you, I love to cook and blog about food and life. It was a friend’s birthday this weekend and as much as I would have loved to make homemade cookies to bring by there house, my schedule with kids activities and hosting their friends and driving one to one place, one to another and needing to buy my 12 year old daughter some things at the mall (for which I couldn’t send my hubby)… so while I was there I took advantage of Mrs. Field’s, which happened to be right by a store I needed to take said 12 yo. So before we went in I ordered a cookie cake and when we were finished, I picked it up. All ready and we could leave and make it home to swap kids with my husband and make it to the camp info session for my youngest. I know my friend loved that we took the time to think of him on his birthday and I bet your party was wonderful, regardless of where the cake came from… and you were able to enjoy the moments before and after without feeling frazzled from trying to squeeze in a homemade cake. 😀
This simple soup looks so satisfying and stress-free. YAY for simplicity!
Ha, thanks, Lisa! That is totally the thing. When I’m spending even MORE time in the kitchen making, say, a birthday cake from scratch and not spending that with my daughter, that doesn’t seem right. So Costco it is! With only a smidgen of guilt, because us moms find reasons to feel guilty no matter what, right?! 😉 Those Mrs. Fields cookie “cakes” are pretty awesome, and that was a very sweet gesture no matter what!
Happy birthday to your daughter!! How fun! I can’t think of a better way of using baby carrots than making a delicious soups out of them! Can’t wait to cozy up to a bowl of this 🙂
Every young mom has the dream and determination to scratch bake their child birthday cake. So she happily and energetically gets to work with great anticipation of the special occasion. But sometime in the wee hours of the night , as the rest of the household sleeps , as she applies the last swirl of frosting and before tackling the washing of cake pans and frosting bowls, she comes to her senses – “next year Costco!! Which would I rather be a rested and loving mom and gracious host or cranky mom and resentful host?”, she asks herself.
That was my experience – a Care Bear cake finished at 2am about 25 years ago.
Glad to hear new generations of moms still love their children and want to make their birthdays special. And thankfully we are willing to accept help along the way – even from a big box store!
PS. Can’t wait to try the carrot soup!
I totally agree with you! Time spent with your daughter on her birthday and the day before is priority #1. They are only young for a short period of time. We get to borrow them for about 18 years and then we have the privilege of watching our child fly off into the world (where they’ll hopefully visit home and call often). With a 12-year-old and a 9-year-old, I know that all too well. 🙂
This soup is freaking delicious. Im a horrible cook, just terrible, and me and my twelve year old made it for dinner tonite. We used coconut milk. She has terrible allergies right now and all that ginger helped her stuffy nose. Im putting this in the rotation.
I’m so glad you loved it! Sounds like you’re not as terrible a cook as you say. 😉 I hope your daughter feels better soon. Allergies suck!
Excellent recipe! I just veganized it by using 1/2 cup of Trader Joe’s Lite Coconut Milk in place of the heavy cream, and it is delicious:) Thanks for the recipe!
Yum! I need to do that now that I can’t eat dairy myself. 🙂
I made this recipe last night but it was horrible. I had a tube of minced ginger and per your ingredients, I used 2 tablespoons. This was way too much to the amount of carrots. I ended up having to add another 2 lbs of carrots. It still has a pretty strong taste of ginger. I think you need to change it from tablespoons to teaspoons. Also I think I would only go with 1 onion.
Pre-minced ginger in a tube would certainly be much stronger (more concentrated/dense, all flavors meld together) than fresh ginger as the recipe calls for. I would probably only use 1/3 of the recipe amount …
This soup turn out great! I didn’t have as many carrots on hand but was able to adjust other ingredients accordingly. The coconut milk is an excellent dairy-free, vegan substitute that gave the soup the right amount of creaminess. My boyfriend and I ate this with crusty olive bread, and it was a big hit with him. I’ll definitely make this again. Thank you!
I LOVE THIS RECIPE! This is my go-to comfort soup! I’ve made it four times and love it every time!
I’m so glad you love it! It’s a fave here too. 🙂
I had carrots to use up and I loved this. Thanks for the recipe!
Yay! I often make this when I find myself swimming in carrots. 🙂
Love this soup. I use the coconut milk to make it whole30 compliant. Thanks for a great recipe
This is such a great recipe. Thanks so much for sharing it. Simple, yet comes out special. I added a touch of smoked paprika (which I only know about because of Kitchen Treaty, lol!) and it was perfection. Any thoughts on well it freezes? Because I’m already thinking about eating it again! 🙂
Modified the recipe a bit by adding frozen orange juice, garlic and clove. Let it sit in a crockpot for quite a while after the coconut milk and it had a rich earthy taste. Yum!
Yum! 🙂
Great recipe! I’ve cooked it already several times. However, it would be nice for people outside of the US to have also the metric equivalents for the ingredients and the temperature. 😉
Thanks for the suggestion, Oliver! You’re right; I should really edit my recipes to include those! I am adding to my to-do list. 🙂
I was pressed for time, so I roasted the carrots and the onions and the ginger all together in the oven, then just pureed them with some canned veggie broth when they cooled a little and heated the soup in a pan, adding the coconut milk when the soup was warm. One less step and it tasted devine!!!
You can save some time and an extra step if you just roast all the veggies together in the oven at once — carrots, onions [in wedges] and ginger. Then puree they with some of the veggie stock and put it in a pan [or the microwave] to heat, adding the coconut milk after it gets warm. Very yummy!!
Ahh, great tip! Thanks, Kathe!