Last Updated on September 28, 2023
Soup? In the summertime? Yeah, I feel a tad silly sharing a soup recipe with you now, being that it is currently July… but hang with me. Maybe you live in a climate with temperate summers, like us? We totally eat soup year-round here. On the other hand, if summer soup is not your jam – that’s okay too! Because while we love eating this killer sweet potato carrot soup fresh, the primary reason we make it is to freeze for later use! It makes for super quick and easy meals at a later date, and is the perfect way to preserve carrots from the garden! That is, in addition to making fermented carrot pickles with them.
Whether you have a huge harvest of homegrown carrots to use, or simply a hankering for some nutritious, hearty, creamy, soul-warming soup, this recipe will hit the spot! Full of roasted veggies, fresh herbs, and flavor, this simple carrot sweet potato soup can be enjoyed as-is, or used as a base to doctor-up and create a variety of soups! We enjoy it both ways.
If you need some tips on growing carrots, be sure to check out this post: “How to Grow Carrots Successfully, from Seed to Table”
Note:
Since we like to stock the freezer with this stuff, and I have to warn you: we make very large batches of soup. Therefore, I am going to give you a “full recipe” (what you’ll see being made in photos) and a “half recipe” for convenience. For reference, the full variation was cooked in a 16 quart stock pot, and yields about 9-10 quarts of carrot sweet potato soup. Needless to say, feel free to further scale down or up from there.
INGREDIENTS
| FULL RECIPE (Yields 9-10 quarts of soup) | HALF RECIPE (Yields 4-5 quarts of soup) |
| 5 pounds of carrots | 2.5 pounds of carrots |
| 4 pounds of sweet potatoes, or about 5 large ones | 2 pounds of sweet potatoes, or about 2-3 large ones |
| 2 large onions, either red or yellow (we used 4 small garden onions as equivalent) | 1 large onion, either red or yellow |
| Fresh thyme, oregano, and sage – I suggest at least a large handful (or standard clamshell package) each. The more, the merrier! | Fresh thyme, oregano, and sage – I suggest at least a modest handful (about half a standard clamshell package) each. The more, the merrier! |
| 1 bunch of celery, chopped | 1/2 bunch of celery, chopped |
| 1 medium bulb of garlic, about 8-10 cloves | 1/2 medium bulb of garlic, about 4-5 cloves |
| 2 quarts vegetable broth or stock | 1 quart vegetable broth or stock |
| 3 quarts water | 1.5 quarts water |
| 1 can of coconut cream, about 14 ounces | 1/2 can of coconut cream, about 7 ounces |
| 1 Tablespoons yellow curry powder (or more, to taste) | 1/2 Tablespoon yellow curry powder (or more, to taste) |
| 2 teaspoons salt | 1 teaspoon salt |
| 1 teaspoon pepper | 1/2 teaspoon pepper |
| 1/2 tsp cumin | 1/4 tsp cumin |
| Olive oil and/or coconut oil | Olive oil and/or coconut oil |
Learn how to easily make homemade veggie brothhere!Or, use concentrated “better than bouillon” paste mixed with water to achieve the same volume.
*NOTE: Before we get too much further, I should mention that the final product of this recipe is a blended/pureed carrot sweet potato soup. We accomplish this using our favorite immersion blender, which makes it extremely quick and easy! Alternatively, you could use a traditional blender at the end, though that may get a little messy and complicated. Especially if you make a full batch.
INSTRUCTIONS
1) Roast Carrots & Sweet Potatoes
Preheat your oven to 425°F. Wash your carrots and taters.
Cut the sweet potatoes into approximately 2 by 2 inch chunks. We like to leave the skins on! There is a ton of good nutrition in there. Next, roughly chop your carrots. No need to peel those guys either.If they’re fatties, take them down into 1-inch medallions. If they’re petite, baby-carrot size, go ahead and leave them whole! I love using our smaller, less developed garden carrots for this. No prep. So easy! Plus, the size and shape doesn’t matter all that much. They will all be blended up in the end anyways!
Load up one or two large glass baking dishes with the carrots and sweet potatoes. We tend to need two dishes when we make our full recipe. Drizzle over a healthy amount of extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
Roast them in the oven (uncovered) for about 40 minutes, rotating the pans and giving everything a good stir halfway through. When they’re finished, the carrots and sweet potatoes should be lightly browned and tender to the fork. If they’re a tad firm in some spots, that is okay. They’ll continue to cook further in the pot too.
Meanwhile, you can prep your other goodies while they’re roasting.
2) Sauté
When the carrots and sweet potatoes are nearly finished roasting, get your favorite stock pot heated up. Over medium-high heat, add a good drizzle (about 2 tbsp) of olive oil and coconut oil each to the pot. Yes, we like to use both, but it’s not necessary if you only have one or the other!
Add diced onions and garlic to the pot, and let them sauté together for a few minutes before adding the chopped celery. Again, all of this is going to get blended later, so don’t worry about being perfect with your cuts. Add a few shakes of salt and black pepper. Sauté until the onions, garlic, and celery turn slightly translucent and soften.
Next, add all of your fresh herbs. Remove any woody stems (e.g. from thyme) and roughly chop them first. Stir well, and allow the herbs to cook with the onion-garlic mixture for a minute or two.
Finally, dump in all the nicely roasted carrots and sweet potatoes, and mix well.
3) Add Liquid & Season
Once all of your veggies are tossed together, it is time to create the soup broth. Honestly, we’re a bit lazy here and use store-bought veggie broth most of the time. I know many homesteaders and chefs prefer to make their own, so feel free to do so!
Add the vegetable stock to the soup pot. For a big batch, we usually use one quart of low-sodium broth and one regular. Also add the called-for amount of water and coconut cream listed in the table above. I highly suggest using cream, not coconut “milk”, since coconut cream is much thicker in consistency – and also more flavorful!
Now it is time for seasonings! Adjusting to full or half batch measurements, add the appropriate amount of yellow curry powder, pepper, and cumin. Don’t worry, the curry is pretty mild at this amount – giving it a perfect boost of earthy flavor, but no overwhelming heat. I am not a huge “spicy” fan myself.
I suggest mixing this all in well and giving it a taste before adding more salt. If you used full-sodium veggie broth, or salted your veggies with a heavy hand during cooking, you may not want to add any more! When we made this last, we added an additional 2 teaspoons of salt to get it where we like it.
4) Simmer & Blend
Once combined, allow everything to simmer together on a medium-low heat. This helps bring all the flavors together. Additionally, if any of your carrot or potato chunks were still a tad firm out of the oven, this allows them more time to soften. There is no steadfast rule in timing here. I’d say we usually let it go for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes.
Finally, use an immersion blender to pulse and puree the carrot sweet potato soup until it is a uniform, smooth, creamy consistency. Boom. Done. Yum.
5) Enjoy!
This step is pretty self-explanatory, right? Well, I thought I would give you a couple tips anyways. As I mentioned before, this hearty carrot sweet potato soup is damn good just by itself. If you’re feeling fancy and fall-like, it is also superb with a sprinkle of roasted pumpkin seeds on top. Of course, we were out when we did this little photo shoot!
Additionally, you also can’t go wrong serving it with a slice of homemade sourdough bread and a sprinkle of grated cheese on top! Parmesan or sharp cheddar work especially well. Alternately, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast or your fave vegan cheese.These herb sourdough crackers are also damn good with any soup!
One thing I really love about this carrot sweet potato soup is that because it is so thick and flavorful, but also fairly simple, you can totally change it up at the time of serving! For example, when we take out a quart from the freezer, we’ll often sauté some fresh garden greens like kale, bok choy, or swiss chard, thin slices of summer squash, maybe a few mushrooms, and even black beans in the bottom of the pan before adding the soup. Really, whatever veggies are coming out of the garden are welcome here too.
This soup is good for about a week in the refrigerator, and up to a year in the freezer!
6) Freezer Tips
Rapid Cooling
When it comes time to portion out a large batch of soup to freeze, I always suggest to rapidly cool it first. Did you know that I used to be a food inspector? Furthermore, did you know that a leading cause of food borne illness (aka “food poisoning”) is improper cooling of large batches of thick, hot foods? Yeah, gross.
One way to rapidly cool hot foods is to divide them up into smaller portions. However, I am not too keen on putting hot food into plastic containers, even though the freezer containers we use are BPA-free. Therefore, we usually create an “ice bath” in our sink – surrounding the hot pot with ice water – and frequently stir it. Consequently, this cools it down to lukewarm as quickly as possible, so we can portion it into our containers soon thereafter.
Package for Freezing
We love and use these containers for freezing our soups, and also for our go-to homemade madras curry lentils! They’re reusable, BPA-free, and made in the USA. The set comes with a variety of sizes: quart, pint, and half-pint size, just like jars. We find a quart is the perfect soup serving for two. Fill them to the “fill line”, pop on the lid, and get them in the freezer.
Speaking of jars, we used to try to freeze glass quart jars of soup, but stopped as more and more cracked on us – wasting a lot of food. On the other hand, half-pint and pint-size wide mouth jars (marked freezer safe) freeze well and are perfect for pesto and other smaller things, whereas quart jars are tricky. The bend in the “shoulder” that makes them crack easier.
When you’re in the mood for a quick and hearty meal, simply pop one from the freezer to defrost in the fridge!
That’s all there is to it!
Now you can go fill your belly (and your freezer) with this delicious, roasted, hearty homemade soup and enjoy many easy meals to come!
If you make and enjoy this recipe, please come back and let us know in the comments below! Also feel free to share this recipe with a friend, or pin it below!
Finally, if you are looking for other satisfying, healthy, garden-to-table vegetarian recipes, you may also enjoy:
- Creamy Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
- How to Make Vegetable Broth from Saved Kitchen Scraps
- Homemade Madras Curry Lentils
- Vegan Roasted Sugar Pie Pumpkin 3-Bean Chili
- Summer Pesto Zoodles (Zucchini Noodles)
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5 from 6 votes
Creamy Roasted Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup (Vegan)
Whether you have a harvest of homegrown carrots to use, or simply a hankering for some nutritious, hearty, creamy, soul-warming soup, this recipe will hit the spot! Full of roasted carrots, sweet potatoes, fresh herbs, and flavor, this simple carrot soup can be enjoyed as-is, or used as a base to doctor-up and create a variety of soups! We enjoy it both ways.
Prep Time20 minutes mins
Cook Time1 hour hr
Course: Main Course, Soup
Keyword: Carrot Soup, Carrot Sweet Potato Soup, Fall Soup, Sweet Potato Soup, Vegan, Vegan Soup, Vegetarian
Servings: 4 Quarts
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds fresh carrots, to roast
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 2-3 large ones) to roast
- 1 large onion – yellow, white or red, diced
- Fresh herbs, including thyme, oregano, and sage. About a standard clamshell package or small handful each, finely chopped. *Substitute with a tablespoon each of dried herbs, or to taste
- 1/2 bunch of celery, chopped
- 4-5 cloves fresh garlic
- 1 quart vegetable broth
- 1.5 quarts water
- 1/2 can of full-fat plain coconut cream (standard 14-15 ounce can size)
- 1/2 Tbsp yellow curry powder (or more, to taste)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- olive oil or coconut oil, for sautéing
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Chop sweet potatoes into 2 inch squares, and cut large carrots into 1-inch medallions (or leave small carrots whole).
Place carrots and sweet potatoes in glass baking dish (or other roasting pan/baking sheet). Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to combine.
Roast for about 40 minutes, until at least semi-tender to the fork (they can continue to soften in the pot with other ingredients later)
Add a drizzle of oil, and diced garlic and onions to a stock pot, and begin cooking over medium-high heat. After a few minutes, add the chopped celery and cook until slightly translucent.
Next, add the chopped herbs and cook for a few minutes before adding the roasted carrots and sweet potatoes to the pot. Stir to combine.
Add the called-for broth, water, coconut cream and remaining seasonings to the pot of cooking ingredients.
Next simmer on medium-low for 10 to 20 minutes, and ensure carrots and potatoes are soft by this time.
Use an immersion blender to thoroughly blend the ingredients until creamy and smooth. Or, transfer the soup into a classic blender to blend in batches as needed.
Serve and enjoy! This soup is good for one week in the refrigerator, and is also freezer-friendly for up to a year. Defrost in the refrigerator and re-heat on the stove top.
