Thai Carrot Soup
I’m just gonna say it, this Thai Carrot Soup may be one of my favorite soups that I have ever made. And I loooove making me some soups! As soon as Fall hits, I’m on it. I’m a little ahead of the game this year, but the weather is starting to cool down a bit as it was a chilly 84* today. 😉
I came up with this soup this morning while I was trying to clear out our fridge. Every couple of weeks at Costco we buy a giant bag of organic baby carrots but we never finish that dang bag. Never, ever, ever, never have. Don’t get me wrong, we eat them and the girls love them for snacks but there are just so.many.carrots. We are not a family of rabbits. They usually end up in the compost. So today as our groceries are running low before my next big grocery trip, I decided to make use of the sad carrots awaiting their demise. It’s safe to say that after today, I’m pretty sure we’ll finally be finishing that giant bag of carrots each time. 🙂
Once I decided I wanted to make carrot soup, I didn’t want to make *just* carrot soup because, quite honestly, it reminds me of baby food. I wanted a bit more complexity to the flavors. I had coconut milk on hand and my mind started turning and ended up on Thai. The final result was more than I had hoped for. One of my favorite dishes before was always Pad Thai, and the flavors in there are pretty close. So if you love Pad Thai, you will love this!
I’m a self professed spice queen. And while I like to put hot sauce on any and everything, I kept this soup mild because I wanted to be able to give it to the kiddos. There is some garlic chili paste in it, but it’s not enough to add heat. If you want more heat, then by all means add away. I ended up garnishing mine with additional chili paste. As far as a chili paste that doesn’t have added ingredients like preservatives and sugar, I recommend Yai’s Thai brand or Plaid & Paleo has a great one you can make from home here.
Final tip. Once I add all of the ingredients into the pot, I gave it one final quick “whirr” with the immersion blender to incorporate and blend everything evenly. If you don’t have an immersion blender, no worries it will still be great.
If you’re looking for another popular vegetables based soup on my blog, I recommend you try my Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Bacon + Thyme. That’s another great way to sneak a load of veggies into a flavorful bowl of soup.
If you’re making this Whole30 compliant make sure to use that compliant chili paste (or leave it off altogether, it will still be delicious) and omit the honey from the recipe.
Thai Carrot Soup
Ingredients
- 1 sweet onion quartered & roughly chopped
- 6 cloves of garlic peeled
- 2 lbs. baby carrots
- 1 tsp. turmeric
- 2 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1 tsp. corriander
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. salt
- olive oil to drizzle
- honey to drizzle omit for Whole30
- 4 C. chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- 1 C. crunchy almond butter Trader Joe's is fantastic
- 1 Tbsp. chili garlic paste more for additional heat
- 1/3 C. chopped cilantro + extra to top / garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400*
- In a large bowl, combine carrots, onions, garlic, turmeric, smoked paprika, corriander, ginger and salt
- Add olive oil and toss to coat
- In large roasting pans (I needed two) spread mix evenly in one layer
- Drizzle layer of carrots with a bit of honey (omit for Whole30)
- Roast for 40 minutes, tossing vegetable about halfway through
- In a high powered blender, add roasted carrots and onion / garlic along with 2 C. broth
- Blend until desired consistency, it should be fairly smooth. (If your blender doesn't get it smooth enough for your liking, feel free to use an immersion blender once you transfer mixture to pot).
- Transfer mixture into a large pot and add remaining chicken broth, coconut milk and chili paste.
- Once the mixture is fully combined, add cilantro and almond butter.
- Stir until almond butter is completely incorporated.
- Simmer for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally.
- If needed, salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve and garnish with any or all of the following: a dollop of coconut milk, almond butter, cilantro and chili paste.
Hi! This sounds delicious. It is necessary to use baby carrots? What about chopping whole large carrots before roasting? Mostly just curious.
Thanks!
Nope, feel free to use regular carrots. I happened to have baby carrots on hand that day so that’s what made the cut. 🙂
I am currently experiencing this EXACT PROBLEM with Costco carrots!!!!! Definitely going to try this recipe. Thank you so much!
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Does this soup freeze well? Btw it is wonderful!!!
I’m not sure actually as I’ve never frozen it before. I would imagine yes. Let me know how it worked out for you!
Just made this soup for my lunches this week and it is delicious! The crunchy almond butter is the perfect finishing touch. Now I’m excited for lunch tomorrow already!
Yes!! That’s exactly why I tell people not to swap out the crunchy with smooth, it really does make a big difference! xo
I had a pound of carrots that froze in the refrigerator, and used this recipe to make use of them. It was Great! I didn’t have the fresh basil at the finish, so used a little dried, can’t imagine how it could be better, but I plan to find out! I did add cooked chicken, and next time think I’ll make it shrimp. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
I made this today with a couple of modifications: I didn’t have any coriander, so I didn’t add that. I substituted fresh ginger for powdered, and I added a little curry powder. It’s delicious!
Michelle, thank you for all of your awesome recipes! I discovered you via your guest spot on Whole30 Instagram a while back. Made your roasted cauliflower soup last week and tonight made this Thai carrot pot of loveliness. I spent several hours today looking for crunchy almond butter with no sugar. No luck. Then I realized I could just make my own. Doh. So, this soup is amazing and absolutely tastes just like pad Thai. I did need to add a couple of extra cups of stock to make it less thick. It’s still super thick, which makes it great to use as a sauce as well. Thank you!!
Good call on making your own! 🙂 I’m so happy that you love my recipes, it means the world to me! xoxo
The same as above, but at step 4, you will cover and simmer about 30 minutes until carrots are tender.
I would love to make this, but we have a nut allergy. Could we sub sunflower butter for the almond butter? We never cook with it, so I don’t know if there’s a better swap or just omit?