Easy Carrot and Parsnip Soup

5 from 4 votes

A delicious combination of carrots, parsnips, ginger and just a touch of chilli, this Easy Carrot and Parsnip Soup is warming, budget friendly, nutritious and very simple to make.

Course Main Course, Soup, Starter

Cuisine British

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 30

Total Time 35

Servings people

Calories 193kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion diced
500 g parsnip peeled and chopped into small chunks (roughly 1cm / ½inch cubes)
500 g carrot chopped into small chunks (roughly 1cm / ½inch cubes – see Note 1)
2 cloves garlic grated or crushed
½ teaspoon fresh ginger grated
½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 litre vegetable stock from a cube is fine (I used Kallo Organic Vegetable Stock)
Salt and black pepper to taste (see Note 2)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Place the olive oil and diced onions in a fairly large saucepan and gently fry the onions for 5 minutes, with the lid on, until softened but not brown. Stir occasionally.
Turn up the heat to medium-high and add the chopped parsnips. Fry the parsnips for 3 minutes, stirring regularly, until the onions and parsnips are tinged with brown. (See Note 3.)
Turn the heat right down and add the chopped carrot, garlic, ginger and chilli flakes. Fry for 1 more minute, stirring occasionally.
Add the vegetable stock, salt and pepper and turn up the heat. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on, or until the parsnip and carrot pieces are tender.
Tip the soup into a blender and blitz until completely smooth. PLEASE TAKE CARE AS THE SOUP WILL BE VERY HOT! (See Note 4.)
If necessary, return the blended soup back to the saucepan and warm back up to your desired temperature. (You may also want to check the seasoning at this point and adjust as necessary.)
Serve with homemade soda bread (or any other bread you like!)

Notes

I find, because this soup is blended until smooth, there is no need to peel the carrots. Not peeling the carrots has no negative impact on the final soup, means you get extra goodness from the skins and saves you a job!
I prefer to only add back pepper to this soup, as the salt content of the stock cube makes this soup salty enough for my tastes.
By turning up the heat and frying the parsnip pieces until they are tinged with brown, you can get a little of that roasted/caramelized parsnip flavour, without the faff of actually having to roast the parsnips in the oven.
If you prefer, you can use a hand blender, however I think this soup works best when blended super smooth, which is harder to achieve with a hand blender.
Suitable for freezing.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition