Roasted Squash and Raw Carrot Soup Recipe

A bright and filling vegan soup.

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated November 17, 2023
An overhead view of carrot soup, garnished with toasts, chopped fresh herbs, and a drizzle of olive oil in a white bowl with a spoon.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Why It Works

  • Juicing the carrots for the soup liquid amps up the flavor more than just water.
  • Emulsifying with olive oil gives the soup a silky body.

When you give my wife free-reign to eat anything in the world, her top two choices are an arugula salad and butternut squash soup.

Here's the version I once made for her.

Squash and carrots go very well together. They're both orange (duh), both have a great sweet-and-savory flavor profile, and both take well to conversion into creamy soup form. Just starchy enough to add some body and silkiness to the purée without being overly heavy.

You can make a perfectly serviceable squash/carrot soup by simply simmering the two together and puréeing the lot with some extra-virgin olive oil (or butter, if you prefer), but this being the middle of winter, I was after something a little deeper, a little more complex.

My first thought was to roast all the vegetables together. Roasting drives off some excess moisture, concentrating their flavor, as well as catalyzing the Maillard browning reaction, which adds color and complexity to the exterior of the roasting vegetables.

Then I thought to myself—what's the point of roasting a vegetable and concentrating its flavor only to water it down with plain old tap water when I subsequently want to purée it? What if, instead of roasting the carrots along with the squash, I were to juice the carrots raw and use that carrot juice as the liquid base for my soup?

I tried it out, adding a bunch of onions sautéed in olive oil until tender and sweet as well, heating the carrot juice (I juiced mine in a juicer, but you can just use bottled) just until hot so it retained most of its fresh flavor.

The soup was excellent—a nice salty/sweet contrast, a great combination of deep roasted aromas and bright freshness. The final step was to emulsify it with some really good olive oil to add some body and texture to it. You can just whisk olive oil into the puréed soup, but you get a tighter emulsion and smoother texture if you drizzle in the olive oil slowly into the running blender, just like making a mayonnaise.

I figure this soup ought to put me in my wife's good graces at least until mid-spring.

February 2012

Recipe Details

Roasted Squash and Raw Carrot Soup Recipe

Prep 10 mins
Cook 65 mins
Active 30 mins
Total 75 mins
Serves 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 small butternut squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), split lengthwise, seeds removed
  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for finishing
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 thyme sprigs
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 medium onion, finely sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
  • 1 1/2 quarts fresh carrot juice (see notes)
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley (optional)
  • 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin or squash seeds (optional)
  • 1/4 cup toasted croutons (optional)

Directions

  1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Coat squash halves with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil with cut side facing up. Place garlic clove and thyme sprig in each seed hollow. Roast until completely tender and lightly browned in spots, about 1 hour total. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Discard thyme and carefully scrape flesh away from skin. Discard skin.

  2. Meanwhile, heat 2 more tablespoons olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until completely tender and lightly browned, about 15 minutes total. Add cooked squash flesh along with garlic cloves. Stir to combine. Add carrot juice and just enough water to submerge everything. Bring to a boil then remove from heat.

  3. Transfer soup to a blender (if necessary, work in two batches). Start blender and slowly increase speed to high. With blender running, slowly drizzle in remaining olive oil. Continue blending until completely smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  4. Reheat soup until simmering and serve immediately, garnishing with additional extra-virgin olive oil, chopped parsley, toasted pumpin or squash seeds, and toasted croutons drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil.

Special Equipment

Dutch oven, blender, juicer (see notes)

Notes

You can use bottled store-bought carrot juice, but I prefer freshly juiced carrots. 4 pounds of carrots will get you about 1 1/2 quarts of juice.

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