Coconut Ginger Carrot Soup (Vegan)
This vegan coconut ginger carrot soup is easy to make in less than 30 minutes and has the most amazing, slightly sweet and perfectly spiced flavour.
Introduction
If you love flavours like coconut and ginger, you’re going to love this delicious, nourishing carrot ginger soup soup. It’s easy to make with just a few simple ingredients, easy to customize and ready to enjoy in 30 minutes.
This soup is lovely year round, served as a light meal, starter, or side paired with a salad or sandwich. It also makes a beautiful addition to holiday meals like Thanksgiving or Easter.
If you have allergies or other dietary restrictions the soup is vegan (no dairy), gluten-free, nut-free and can easily be made oil-free. It can also be customized by swapping the carrot for sweet potato or squash, adding veggies like cauliflower and celery or using different spices like curry powder or cayenne pepper.
For more simple soups, this lemon lentil soup, chickpea chowder, black bean soup and cauliflower sweet potato soup are all crowd favourites.
Ingredient Notes
This list is not complete. Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.
- Olive Oil: Optional. You can use oil to saute the onion or a bit of water or broth for an easy oil-free option. Butter would also work here.
- Onion: You can use white or yellow onion. Shallot would also work!
- Garlic: Fresh garlic is best. The recipe calls for 3 cloves but feel free to use a bit more if you love garlic.
- Ginger: The recipe calls for fresh ginger but you can substitute 1 tsp ground ginger in a pinch.
- Spices: You’ll need cumin and coriander. Other spices that could work in this recipe are curry powder, turmeric or even a pinch of cinnamon or cloves.
- Carrot: This recipe is for fresh carrots. You should be able to use frozen carrots but I haven’t tried it.
- Broth: Any good homemade or store-bought broth or stock works. You can use carton, canned or cubed broth. I like Better than Boullion.
- Coconut Milk: You can use canned full-fat coconut milk or for a lower-fat option, light coconut milk.
Variations
- This recipe also works well with sweet potato, squash or a mix of sweet potato, squash and carrot.
- Add 2 tsp curry powder for curried ginger carrot soup.
- Add heat with up to 1 tsp red chili flakes or cayenne pepper.
- Add 1 tbsp red curry paste for a Thai ginger carrot soup soup.
- Add 2-3 diced stalks of celery with the onion for extra depth of flavour.
- Add up to 1 cup of white beans when you add the coconut milk for more creaminess and protein.
Serving
- Serve on its own for a light meal.
- Top with a drizzle of coconut milk, dollop of sour cream, squeeze of fresh lime, fresh cracked black pepper and/or finely chopped fresh cilantro.
- Crispy chickpeas, roasted cauliflower, toasted cashews or pumpkin seeds, coconut bacon or tempeh bacon are also yummy toppings.
- Serve as a starter for a holiday or any fall or winter meal.
- Delicious with a piece of toasted sourdough or any crusty bread.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Prepare to Cook: Chop the onion, garlic, ginger and carrot. Once you get the onion and garlic in the pan, you can continue preparing the carrot and ginger and gather the spices.
Step 1: Cook the Onion & Garlic
Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes until nice and soft.
Quick Tip: If you want an oil-free recipe, use a bit of water or broth to cook the onion and garlic instead of oil.
Step 2: Add Carrot & Ginger
Add the carrots, ginger and spices with another little pinch of salt and pepper, and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
Quick Tip: If you want the soup to have some heat, add up 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or chili flakes along with the other spices.
For curried soup, add 1-2 tsp mild curry powder. For red curried soup, add 1-2 tbsp red curry paste.
Step 3: Simmer Soup
Add the coconut milk and broth and simmer uncovered until the carrots are nice and tender. This should take about 20-25 minutes.
Step 4: Blend Soup
Now it’s time to blend! You can use an immersion blender in the pot which works fine, but for the smoothest soup, I suggest using a Vitamix or other high-speed blender.
Carefully transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Just be sure to allow the steam to escape as you blend!
FAQs
Yes, this soup is vegan as long as you use vegetable stock.
Yes. To freeze this soup, let it cool then transfer it to freezer bags or a freezer-safe container. Thaw in the fridge then reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Not necessarily. I prefer to peel them for the best creamy texture but you can also just give them a good scrub and skip the peeling.
Storing
- Fridge: Let cool then store in a sealed container for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Let cool then store in a sealed container for up to 3 months.
- Reheating: Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave, adding a bit of water or broth to thin if needed. If frozen, thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
What to Make Next
Check out some favourite soup recipes below or browse all my soup recipes here:
- Lemon Lentil Soup: Zesty, easy and healthy!
- Chickpea Vegetable Chowder: A popular dairy-free chowder recipe.
- Cauliflower Sweet Potato Soup: Curried cauliflower and sweet potato soup with turmeric.
- Kabocha Squash Soup: Creamy curried squash soup.
- Mulligatawny Soup: A flavourful soup with apple, lentil and rice.
- Vegan Cashew Carrot Soup: Ultra-creamy carrot soup made with cashews.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Coconut Ginger Carrot Soup
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This spiced coconut ginger carrot soup is ready in 30 minutes, full of flavour and so easy to make.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil or water
- 1 medium white onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 5 cups peeled and chopped carrots (approx. 7 large carrots)
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup canned full-fat coconut milk
- salt and pepper, as needed
Instructions
- Prepare: Chop the onion and garlic first and then start heating the oil in a large soup pot while you start chopping the the carrot and ginger. Once you add the onion and garlic to the pot, you can finish chopping the carrot and ginger and gathering the cumin, coriander, broth and coconut milk.
- Saute Onion and Garlic: If you’re using oil, heat it in a large soup pot over medium heat then add the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes until fragrant and soft. For oil-free soup, use water or broth instead of oil.
- Add Ginger, Carrot and Spices: Add the ginger, carrot, 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp coriander, along with another pinch of salt and pepper, and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. If the pan starts to dry out, you can add a splash of water or broth.
- Simmer Soup: Add the coconut milk and vegetable broth and let it simmer lightly, uncovered for about 20 minutes or until the carrots are fork tender and cooked through. Remove the soup from heat.
- Blend Soup: Use an immersion blender in the pot or carefully transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour it back into the pot.
- Season and Serve: Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning if needed. Serve right away with finely chopped cilantro, a drizzle of coconut milk and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.
Notes
If you find it to be too thick when you’re done, simply stir in some extra vegetable stock, water or non-dairy milk.
Leftover soup can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days. To freeze, cool then transfer to freezer bags or a freezer-safe container and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge if frozen then reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave until heated through.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
- Calories: 232
- Fat: 15 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fiber: 6 g
- Protein: 4 g
This recipe was originally posted on September 21, 2015.
This is delicious. It taste’s rich, creamy and overall a real taste bud’s delight!
Oh, my goodness, this soup is wonderful!
I used about a tablespoon of Penzey’s sate spice mix* to season. I’ll be making this soup often! It may be my new favorite soup.
* salt, brown sugar, garlic, white onion, coriander, shallots, ginger, turmeric, paprika, Ancho pepper, galangal, cayenne and lemon grass.
Great! So glad you enjoyed it!!
This was just right! Not too thin…not too thick! Made almost like the recipe was printed. Added cinnamon as suggested and some dried coconut 3 minutes before using immersion blender! Just right! Adding lime cuts some of the sweetness. So happy to have leftovers, too! Snow day tomorrow in the Sierras. Thank you!
We do not do social media. Is there any way to get your smoothie recipes?
We had a soup similar to this at a restaurant, and I’ve been looking for a recipe for one. I can’t wait to try this! I am not vegan, but I LOVE vegan food and we do eat quite a bit of it (I just won my church chili cook off for best vegan chili!). Love all the comments too – so excited about this recipe! Thanks!
I hope you enjoy it! Let me know!
Amazing!!! Made this when my husband was sick and he loves it. Also i added shrimps to mine.. Thank you for the receipe!
Thank you for trying it and leaving a review!
Loved this recipe! The ingredients were simple, instructions were clear and most importantly – it was delicious 🙂 Nothing like a warming soup with whole foods that tastes delicious!
So happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for the review!
We loved it, kids (3 & 1) thought I had made pudding for supper. We are not vegan but we try and be as healthy as possible and I am finding more and more that your recipes are quick and easy to make for my family (and obviously healthy).
Thank you.
This soup was a definite make again recipe. I didn’t have any coriander so I skipped it and added a little more cumin. Also I used a whole can of full fat coconut milk and only two cups of veggie stock and the soup turned out nice and creamy.
Great to hear! Thanks for the review!
I made a quadruple batch of this for an event and it was a HUGE hit. I got so many compliments–one person said it was the best soup they had ever had. A number of people sought me out to tell me how much they loved it. (I thought it was delicious as well–it really did have a perfect fall soup flavor.) I stuck almost exactly to the recipe, but added some tumeric with the other spices. Probably about 1 t per batch–maybe a bit more. I made home made veggie stock to use with it. Thanks for the recipe–I’ll be sharing it.
Wow, that’s so awesome!! What a great review. I’m so happy everyone loved it. Thanks!
I tried this recipe last night for a dinner party with friends and it was beyond delicious… yummie !!!
Thank you <3
Wonderful! So glad to hear it! Thanks for the message.