I remember a time when carrot and coriander soup used to be considered almost exotic. Sure, Brits made carrot soup, but coriander? Now that was fancy. These days, carrot and coriander suffers from being commonplace and supermarket shelves and chillers groan under the weight of bland and boring cartons of soup. Frankly, it’s embarrassing for the carrots.
It seems to be a case of extremes–either the flavour of the carrot is dulled by copious amounts of cream or all salt has been omitted in the name of virtuous health. Where has the happy medium gone? Where is my delicious soup? I want my tastebuds to sit up and pay attention when I eat a bowl of soup, not sigh sadly.
As the old axiom says, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” So I did. Twice, in fact, as it was so good. And even better than that, my recipe is zero points on the Weight Watchers programme, which is a very good thing since Dave and I are guzzling it like little piggie-wiggies.
This is a triple-coriander soup–I used ground coriander, coriander stalks and finished off with a handful of chopped leaves. This wasn’t just an exercise in frugality–the stalks add a certain je ne sais quoi to the soup. Still a coriander flavour, but different somehow. I used ground cumin because my old flatmate in Glasgow always threw it in, and it really is a perfect partner for coriander anyway. Garlic because… well, what is soup without garlic? The ginger brings out the natural sweetness of the carrots and the chilli just kicks it up a notch.
Finally, carrot and coriander is exotic again!
PS For more vegetable–not necessarily vegetarian, though–soups, visit Soup’s On! at A Veggie Venture.
My carrot and coriander soup
WW (UK) points: 0 for the whole amount
1 medium onion, finely chopped
~800ml chicken stock
2 TSP ground coriander
1 TSP ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1″ of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
500g carrots, peeled and roughly sliced
small bunch of fresh coriander, divided into stalks and leaves and finely chopped
Dump the onions and enough chicken stock to cover them in a large saucepan. Cover, bring to the boil, and simmer briskly until the onion is translucent and has begun to ‘fry’ in the stock. Add the spices, ginger, garlic and chilli to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until they’re fragrant and have begun to change colour.
Add the carrots and chopped coriander stalks to the pan and stir well to combine. Pour over enough stock to cover the vegetables, cover and bring to the boil.
Simmer for about 25 minutes until the carrots are tender. Cool for about 15 minutes before liquidising to your desired consistency. Stir in the chopped coriander and season to taste.
If the soup is too thick, then thin down with some more stock, plain water, milk, or cream. The choice is yours, depending upon how virtuous you’re feeling….
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Hi Angela ~ What a burst of creativity for carrot soup! Thanks so much for the contribution to Soup’s On. I’m updating now so look for your link and several other great recipes shortly. (BTW “Deb’s” blog was one of my very early favorites too.)
Thanks, Alanna! I polished off the rest of the soup this afternoon and it was still wonderful
This looks like a delicious version of a soup I used to make (far simpler). I never thought about it as a zero-points/diet soup before, so I’ll definitely have to put it back in rotation.
Next time–and especially as the weather warms up–you should try adding a splash of fresh orange juice: gives the soup such a nice, bright touch.
This soup looks delicious!
I must try it… I love carrot & coriander soup.
Thank you for sharing.
Margot
I made this soup and I added orange juice as “littlebouffe” suggested! Delicious!!
Absolutely loved it!!! Simple but delicious soup.
Loved the recipe so I have had to post it to My Cookery book on Foodari so i can find it easily again and share with others!
Great soup recipe. Loved it.
Nice soup, but found too hot, so next time will leave out chilli!
For even more deliousness, I added 3/4c white wine and simmered the soup for an extra 15 minutes.
Hi there. I’ve just made this soup – it is fantastic!!!
I have been dieting with WW and usually make a free vegetable soup during the week to help keep the hunger at bay, but I was getting bored with the same old flavour. I punched in “carrot soup” on my search engine and I’m sooooooooooo pleased I stumbled across this recipe. The flavour is fantastic, and the kick from the chilli just makes it, plus it is so cheap to make.
Thanks……!!
Thanks, everyone! I’m glad this soup is proving so popular–it’s been a real favourite in our household over the winter
Thanks so much for the carrot soup recipe Im off to the supermarket to get fresh coriander and pepper now.
A really lovely soup. I found this blog by googling carrot soup! Have now bookmarked it and am looking forward to trying out some of your other recipes … thanks for sharing!
This soup is really great! It works as a cold soup, too. I agree with others that the chili may make it a bit too hot (the ginger already adds heat on its own). I added half a cucumber (chopped) before homogenising, and that helped to cool things a bit. I hadn’t any orange juice but I’ll try that next time.
It’s simmering away downstairs right now… smells AMAZING!! Thank you very much Angela
I made this today, it was delicious.
Used vegetable stock instead of chicken. Worked very well.
I added two small chillies and didn’t deseed – slightly too hot!
Tried your recipe yesterday. Absolutely gorgeous. The smell as it was cooking didn’t disappoint.
Wow, we love it and so do the kids!! Its so easy to make and very enjoyable. Thanks for the recipe!
I have made this soup twice in recent weeks and was very impressed. Just the right amount of spicyness and not much work involved, especially if, like me, you use ready-sliced carrots on the second occasion! It is an added bonus to know that it is low fat and I will certainly be making it on a regular basis.
Many thanks for the recipe.
Judy
hi angela, wot a fantastic soup, can,t get enough of it.brill recipe easy to make, so on the whole i would defintley award you 10 out of 10.just what is needed on these cold winter nights. thanks joanne
Lovely recipy, A breath of fresh air! Will make lots I’m sure!
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What exactly does corriander taste like?
thanks
That’s not an easy question to answer. It’s like asking what cinnamon tastes like.
I can say, however, that fresh coriander and dried coriander (the ground seeds) taste quite different. Dried coriander is a spicy flavour and fresh coriander is a fresh, cleansing green flavour. Really, you’re best off just trying it for yourself.
Thank you so much for this Angela. I was craving some Covent Garden’s carrot soup, and dare I say this was better
Scrumptious!
Very successful! We had it for lunch today and it was excellent. I accidentally overdid the chilli but it was still very good
Wow going to share this with my ww meeting tomorrow. I made it with Garam masala instead of ground cumin and corriander as both spices are in the masala, it was beautiful. Thanks for sharing it xxxx