This 7-ingredient carrot ginger soup is one of our favorite recipes for brightening up cold days. Creamy & refreshing, it's a satisfying, cozy meal.
If you went to your farmers market over the weekend and came home with a beautiful bunch of carrots, then this carrot soup recipe is for you. They’re the main ingredient in this easy recipe, along with a few staples that you likely already have in your kitchen.
Carrot Soup Recipe Ingredients
This easy soup recipe is just 7 ingredients, and it’s so simple and delicious with no cream, no cashew cream, and no coconut cream (ok just a tad for garnish, but it’s really not necessary). The creamy base of the soup comes purely from the pureed carrots. Here’s what else makes it so darn good:
- Ginger adds a lovely freshness and plays well with the carrots’ sweetness.
- Onion and garlic give it depth of flavor.
- Extra-virgin olive oil adds richness.
- Apple cider vinegar makes it bright & tangy.
- And veggie broth gets the blender moving and ties it all together.
Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add a bit of maple to sweeten it up, if you wish. That’s it!
Carrot Ginger Soup Serving Suggestions
I made this carrot soup a full meal by serving it with a simple massaged kale salad made of leftover brown rice, a few carrot curls, dried cranberries, a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I also smashed some avocado on toast and topped it with dollops of pesto. It would be excellent with herbed farro as well. For more salad inspiration, check out this post.
The soup is great on its own, but it’s extra tasty with scoops of pesto that I made out of the carrot tops. I’ve made carrot top pesto before, but this is the first time I’ve made it with only the carrot greens and no other herbs. Because who has basil this time of year?
Like most soups, this carrot soup keeps well in the fridge for a few days, so it would be a great make-ahead Thanksgiving starter or weekday lunch. See this post for my best meal prep tips and this one for more lunch ideas.
What is the best blender for soup?
I love to puree this and other soups using my Vitamix A3500, which I think is the best blender for soup. It blends my soups to smooth and creamy perfection every time!
This blender also has a sleek design and special features like built-in wireless connectivity (the base can automatically sense the size of the container you’re using and what program to use!). At around $600 at Amazon, it’s a bit pricey, but it’s super powerful and will last you for years.
More Favorite Soup Recipes
If you love this carrot soup, try one of these easy soup recipes next:
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Pumpkin Soup
- Vegetable Soup
- Tomato Soup
- Or any of these 35 Best Soup Recipes!
Carrot Soup Recipe with Ginger
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ medium yellow onion, chopped
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 3 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 pound carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup, optional
- Coconut milk, for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, salt and pepper and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add the smashed garlic cloves (they’ll get blended later) and carrots to the pot and cook 8 minutes more, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the ginger, apple cider vinegar, and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Let cool slightly and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth. If your soup is too thick, add a little water. If you would like your soup a little sweeter, add the maple syrup.
- Serve with a drizzle of coconut milk, if desired.
Good basic recipe, which I doubled. Forgot that my blender volume didn’t double, so that was a hassle. I used twice (in my case 4x) the ginger.
Suggested single additional ingredient to make this pop, or add variety with leftovers:
Garam masala.
Which adds coriander, cumin, cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, & nutmeg in a balanced way.
Also nice dusted with cayenne.
Over all, good recipe. I love ginger so I doubled that and added orange zest and red pepper flakes. I also added an extra cup of stock and doubled the salt (my stock was low sodium) and it was great.
Hi Michelle, I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup! Love the idea of adding orange zest.
I don’t taste the ginger so it’s definitely bland but the texture and color is great. Can I add more ginger somehow after it’s cooked? Thanks
Hi Roger, yep! You could add finely grated fresh ginger at this stage for a stronger ginger flavor.
Used homemade chicken broth, extra ginger, a touch of half and half(didnt have coconut milk), “hot honey” and a dash of smoked paprika on top….perfect!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
So easy and so good. I used a full onion and maybe more carrots than called for, but it still turned out beautifully. I went a bit heavy on the black pepper and used a stick blender while it was still in the pot. Just had two bowls for lunch and will definitely make this again.
Meant to give it five stars!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This is my kids’ favorite soup, and has been for years! (Don’t know why I waited so long to rate it, haha.) It always feels like spring when we make it. I double the recipe so that we can have leftovers! And I add the maple syrup and coconut milk right into the blender – it’s the perfect touch. Thanks for providing us with such a healthy and delicious family staple!
Hi Allison, aww thanks for your comment! I’m so glad everyone loves the soup.
Wow! This was really delicious and so easy to make. It was a big hit in our family. We used carrots from our garden and it was so flavorful. This will be in our rotation for sure. My daughter said “this is my new favorite soup!”.
Hi Nicole, aww I’m so glad it was a hit!
I tried this again after having it not turn out the first time. I didn’t put in any apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice, or any kind of substitute), added twice the amount of ginger and just used water instead of veggie broth. It turned out great this time, nice and gingery. I didn’t add either of the optional ingredients.
Hi Denise, I’m so glad you gave the soup another go and that you enjoyed it!
This recipe is good, but could be better. It needs more ginger and more seasoning.
Made this for lunch today and so I glad I did. Since I did not have fresh ginger, I used the miso ginger broth from Trader Joe’s. I had 2 servings – on one I mixed in a spoon of Lemon pesto and the second just by itself. Both were delicious. I paired this with naan and that worked well as well. I would like to do this again but with fresh ginger so I can compare flavors. Thank you for this recipe. I will definitely add this to my go-to soup list.
Hi Gene, I’m so glad you loved the soup! What a fun idea to use that miso ginger broth, yum!
I just made this soup today and I’m absolutely obsessed! I used rice wine vinegar and dashi to sub out the white vinegar and broth since that’s what I had at home, but it turned out incredibly delicious!
I also topped it with your recipe for carrot green chimichurri and some crushed red pepper for garnish. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
This recipe is great! I added maybe a half cup of unsweetened applesauce, thyme, teaspoon of curry, a little honey to taste, and cream. Delicious!
Unfortunately this was not a win for me. All those ingredients and I could only taste the apple cider vinegar, which wasn’t very pleasant. I’m not sure if I did something wrong or what.
I would think so. I follows the recipe and think it’s delicious. It’s definitely very easy to add too much vinegar and that’s a tough one to come back from.
Hi Denise, sorry to hear that! Did you change anything about the recipe? If not and the vinegar is too strong for your taste, I’d recommend reducing the vinegar by half next time. Another option would be to skip the vinegar and finish the soup with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Hi Phoebe, the only thing I changed is that I simmered the soup covered- I saw in another comment, after I had made it, that you intended for it to be simmered uncovered. Would that have made the difference? I also might have added too much of the vinegar by accident, though I did use measuring spoons. I think I’ll try this again without the vinegar and then just taste it to see if it needs some lemon juice at the end.
We are putting up a pot right now, this is a regular in our house. Sometimes.we tweek. it, but however you make it, this is a WINNER! Thanks.
I’m so glad you love it, Patricia!
This recipe not only tastes good, but I felt good after eating it. I’m going to make this again and again. Thank you for sharing it.
Hi Laura, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I made this and it was delicious. The whole pot is gone. It was too thin consistency. Google said 1 lb carrots was 6 carrots and I pureed it. I added white cannellelli beans and celery to thicken it, Lawrys and vegeta seasoning.
Oh yum, that sounds delicious. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Love this soup!
I followed this recipe, but I did add extra ginger because I love my ginger and this was so good!
I will be making this quite often this fall and winter!
Thank you
Love! Thanks for including sides to round out meal.
I added a touch of lemon and cayenne to this and it made it better!
This recipe is perfect as written! Thank you for sharing, we will now keep this in our soup rotation. Next time we will double it for leftovers!
I’m so glad you loved it!