This vibrant Curried Coconut Carrot Soup is alive with spice while being both creamy and savory. Since we use unsweetened coconut milk, it doesn’t lean sweet. The flavor stays balanced, yet decadent.
As a bonus—it’s a fun food alliteration.
Make-Ahead
This soup, as with most curried things, is better if it sits in the fridge overnight, allowing time for spices to marry and open. If you plan on freezing this, let it sit in the fridge overnight first.
It’s still very tasty when enjoying it right away. As I write this, I can’t stop going back to it for tastes. Tomorrow is gonna be delicious!
I recently stirred some leftover wild rice into this soup and it was a wonderful meal.
Easy Ingredients
This is one of those recipes that uses a lot of pantry ingredients. You might find you already have what you need if you are someone who has some onion, carrots and a lime around. If you also happen to have cilantro, basil, or Thai basil around, you’re set.
Carrots
You can make this with baby carrots or full-sized carrots. I usually use forgotten leftover baby carrots we have bought to snack on. It feels good to rescue the baby carrots from fridge-limbo; they are not super fresh, but they haven’t gone bad either. Soup is the solution to many of life’s fridge-limbo problems.
Coconut Milk
I often use Chaokoh Coconut Milk in many recipes; it’s full fat, unsweetened, and does not contain any added preservatives. For this recipe, I recommend any full fat, unsweetened coconut milk. Using unsweetened coconut milk will ensure that your soup won’t be overly sweet.
Using full fat coconut milk makes this rich and decadent. If you are okay with a less rich soup, you can use lite coconut milk instead.
Be sure to shake and/or stir your coconut milk before adding it to the soup. It tends to separate in the can. If it’s cold, you can place the unopened can in a hot water sink bath to bring the solids to liquid to make it easier to stir into an even consistency.
Wondering what to do with leftover coconut milk?
Try freezing it for later or making this Whole Roasted Cauliflower & Vegan Makhani Sauce.
Vegan no-chicken broth options
I recommend using a no-chicken or vegan-chicken-flavor broth for this soup. I’ve made soups with regular veggie broth and not liked them.
The Orrington Farms All Natural Vegan Broth Base & Seasoning, Chicken Flavor is gluten-free certified.
If you use Low Sodium Imagine Vegetarian No-Chicken Broth, you may want to add salt to your soup after tasting. This is also listed as gluten-free on the packaging.
Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No-Chicken Base is a great go-to broth base if you are not feeding gluten-free eaters.
Orrington Farms All Natural Vegan Broth Base & Seasoning, Chicken Flavor, Low Sodium Imagine Vegetarian No-Chicken Broth, and Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No-Chicken Base.
Lime Juice is essential
Squeezing a little lime over the soup and giving it a stir before serving is part of the magic of this soup. It takes the soup to the next level. Just a little squeeze plays nicely with everything.
Veggie prep for soup
I often use my bullet-style food processor to chop veggies for soup, especially when I intend to blend the soup. It’s a nice shortcut when pretty knife work doesn’t matter. Simply pulse to a chop; avoid over-pulsing.
This time I chopped the carrots with a knife and used the food processor for the onion. I cut off a few large pieces of the onion, put it in the food processor and measured a 1/2 cup.
Another shortcut for onion recipes is to get packaged diced onion from the produce section of the store.
Let’s Make Curried Coconut Carrot Soup
Heat the Earth Balance over medium heat in a stockpot.
Add onions and carrots. Sauté until softened, about 8 minutes.
Add all spices, including salt & pepper. Sauté for 1 – 2 minutes, until fragrant, stirring to avoid burning the spices.
Add the broth and stir. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium or medium plus and continue simmering until the carrots are cooked through, about 12 minutes. Carrots are cooked through when they are easily pierced with a fork.
If you have an immersion blender, purée the soup in the pot. If not, wait until the soup cools slightly, and purée in a blender or food processor. Add coconut milk while blending. Add more coconut milk or broth if needed to reach desired consistency. Leave it a little chunky if you want.
Adjust seasonings; depending on the broth you used, you may want to add more salt. Garnish with a squeeze of lime, chopped cilantro or Thai basil, and a swirl of coconut milk or plain & unsweetened vegan yogurt if desired. Serve & enjoy!
As mentioned earlier, I strongly recommend squeezing a little lime juice into each bowl of soup and stirring before serving. It really brings it to the next level. You can add the lime juice to the pot of soup, but it gets a little lost and toned down, especially if you are eating the soup as leftovers or you’ve made it ahead and stored it.
Curried Coconut Carrot Soup
Ingredients
- 2 TBSPs Earth Balance or neutral oil
- 1/2 cup onion chopped
- 1 pound baby carrots cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper more to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper more to taste, less or omit if spice-sensitive
- 3 cups vegan no-chicken broth link goes to gluten-free option
- ~1 cup unsweetened coconut milk more or less depending on desired rich, creaminess
- 1/2 of a lime cut into sections to squeeze on soup before serving, strongly recommended; more to taste
Garnish
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro or Thai basil chopped; optional
- a swirl of unsweetened coconut milk or plain, unsweetened vegan yogurt optional
Instructions
- Heat the Earth Balance over medium heat in a stockpot. Add onions and carrots. Sauté until softened, about 8 minutes. Add all spices, including salt & pepper. Sauté for 1 – 2 minutes, until fragrant, stirring to avoid burning the spices.
- Add the broth and stir. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium or medium plus and continue simmering until the carrots are cooked through, about 12 minutes. Carrots are cooked through when they are easily pierced with a fork.
- If you have an immersion blender, purée the soup in the pot. If not, wait until the soup cools slightly, and purée in a blender or food processor. Add coconut milk while blending. Add more coconut milk or broth if needed to reach desired consistency. Leave it a little chunky if you want.
- Adjust seasonings; depending on the broth you used, you may want to add more salt. Garnish with a squeeze of lime, chopped cilantro or Thai basil, and a swirl of coconut milk or plain & unsweetened vegan yogurt if desired. Serve & enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman at NY Times Cooking.
If you enjoyed this recipe you may also enjoy
- Instant Pot Turkish Red Lentil Soup
- Whole Roasted Cauliflower & Vegan Makhani Sauce
- Vegan No-Chicken Noodle Soup
- Cheesy Vegan Broccoli Soup
- Carrot Ginger Miso Dressing
- Oven-Baked Sriracha Tofu
- Miso Rice Cake Soup
Did you make Coconut Curry Carrot Soup?
How was it? Any variations? Did you take the spice up a notch with some extra cayenne? Did you go ultra smooth or leave it a little chunky? Tell me about it in the comments section below.
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