This Roasted Carrot & Cumin combination makes such a wonderful cosy soup, perfect for a quick dinner, lunch or to fill the freezer for cold days ahead.

 

Roasting carrots makes for a lovely soup as opposed to simply boiling them, adding in this step means that it adds to the sweetness and depth of flavour. Largely this recipe is hands off, with roasting time then finishing briefly on the stove top.

Carrots and cumin is a lovely combo, the warmth of the cumin along with the sweetness of the carrots works so well. How we use the cumin and when means the spices work so well here. 

 

This recipe does not include cream, I find that it can overpower the carrots and dull down the flavours that I add. Instead of cream I add a little butter at the end.

Seems like an odd choice but it adds the lovely mouthfeel of a little fat without changing the final flavour, you can use cream if you prefer, but just a little bit.

This soup, if made with vegetable stock is perfect for vegetarians, and if you omit the butter it is vegan. 

 

Roasting carrots is so easy to do, you want to cut them reasonably small so that they cook through to tender before they burn, and they are cooked with the onion and garlic and cumin seeds along with some oil drizzled over them in a lined roasting pan.

The ingredients are lovely and simple, carrots, garlic, onion, oil, thyme, both cumin seeds and ground cumin, ground coriander, thyme, chili flakes, salt and pepper, chicken and vegetable stock, water and butter to finish. 

 

The garlic cloves are kept in their skin so that they can roast for this longer time with the other vegetables, if you peel them add them half way through with the second set of spices.

If you roast garlic cloves peeled too long it can become hard, burnt and bitter. Roasting them in their skins ensures they are soft and mellow slowly cooking inside.

 

This is roasted for 20 minutes, then when you go to turn them you add the ground spices of cumin, coriander, dried thyme and pepper, and if you choose, some chili flakes.

The reason you add these half way through cooking is so that they do not become bitter and burnt in flavour from the longer cooking times. 

 

 

Once the carrots are roasted to perfection, add them to a large saucepan with the stock and water, you can use vegetable or chicken, ideally salt reduced. Use the first amount of water I have listed, then save the rest until after the soup is blended.

Squeeze out the garlic cloves into the sauce pan as well, then bring the stock to a gentle rolling simmer and cook for 5 minutes or longer if the carrots need time to become tender. 

 

Then add all the ingredients to a heat proof blender or use a stick immersion blender, to blend the soup until it is lovely and smooth.

Use your discretion if you wish to add more water at this stage, I find that I sometimes need a further half a cup to get it to the consistency I like. Some prefer a thicker or thinner soup, it also helps it become more smooth if it has a little extra liquid. 

 

I do not add salt to my stock based soups until the end of the preparation, this way you can taste it and see how much salt is required.

You know your soup needs salt if it tastes a little bland or flat, salt adds a brightness to the flavours that are already there, salt is not the flavour you want, rather the carrot and the other flavours to be lifted to their best.

 

It sounds funny, but you want to be able to really taste the ingredients, salt helps this happen so add it to lift the entire dish, a little at a time, then stop when you feel that bright flavour. 

Once you are happy with the flavours, add a tablespoon of butter and blend it in well, then taste, you want it to add little creaminess and a lovely mouth feel, feel free to add an additional tablespoon if you desire. 

 

Then serve warm, with crusty bread, or you can add my lovely easy croutons, which you can cook while the soup is on the stove top in the final steps.

You can also allow this to cool, then store in the fridge for 4 days or it freezes so well. See my video here on how I store my soup in portions that also saves on freezer space.

Here are some of my favourite soup recipes that I think you will love to try next time!

Potato & Leek Soup

Vegetable & Bacon Hock Soup

Slow Cooker Roasted Tomato & Basil Soup

Slow Cooker Pumpkin & Potato Soup

 

I hope you love this recipe for Roasted Carrot & Cumin Soup, be sure to check out my other soups, I have a lovely range of stove top and slow cooker soup recipes. 

Be sure to rate this one in the recipe card above and let me know in the comments when you make it, Enjoy!

 

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Happy Baking! 

Anna

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