Carrot and Orange Soup
- Savory
- Stovetop
- Oven
Sweet carrots and onion simmered until tender, then blended smooth with fresh orange juice and zest stirred in at the end for a bright, clean finish. A light, warming soup that is not spicy.
- Total
- 54 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 39
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Sweating · Simmering
Instructions
-
Peel the carrots and cut them into 2 cm rounds. Peel the onion and chop it roughly. Peel the ginger and grate it finely. Zest one orange into a small bowl, then juice both oranges and set the juice aside.
~15 min
-
Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes.
~6 min
Cooking the onion until translucent softens its harsh raw bite and builds a sweet base without browning, which would darken the soup.
Sweating Cook the onion over medium heat without browning until soft and translucent; if it starts to color, lower the heat so the soup stays sweet and pale.
-
Add the grated ginger and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant, then add the carrots, 1 tsp salt and 0.25 tsp black pepper. Stir to coat and cook for 2 minutes.
~2 min
Briefly cooking the ginger and seasoning the vegetables draws out aroma and lets the salt start softening the carrots before the liquid goes in.
-
Pour in 900 ml vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, until the carrots are completely tender and crush easily against the side of the pot, 20 to 25 minutes.
~25 min
Simmering gently rather than boiling hard keeps the carrots from breaking up unevenly and concentrates the stock's flavor as it reduces slightly.
Simmering Keep the liquid at a gentle bubble, not a rolling boil, and test the carrots by crushing one against the pot; they should give way with no resistance.
-
Take the pot off the heat. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. If using a stand blender, blend in 2 batches, filling it no more than halfway and venting the lid so steam escapes.
~4 min
Blending off the heat and in small batches prevents steam pressure from building and splattering hot soup, and gives a smoother texture.
If the blended soup looks thicker than you like, loosen it with a splash of the vegetable stock rather than water so the flavor stays full.
-
Stir in the orange juice and orange zest, then taste and adjust the salt. Serve hot.
~2 min
Adding the orange off the heat preserves its fresh aroma and bright acidity, which boiling would dull.
Add the orange juice only after the pot is off the heat: boiling it dulls the fresh citrus aroma, while stirring it in at the end keeps the soup bright.
