Roasted Carrot and Fennel Soup

This Roasted Carrot and Fennel Soup is bursting with flavour. Made with just a few simple ingredients this vegan soup is perfect for lunch or as a starter for a special occasion meal. Roasting the carrots and fennel brings out their subtle sweetness, making this a delicious but delicate soup.

Jump to:

• 📝 What You'll Need
• 🥣How To Make It
• 📋 Tips and Variations
• Roasted Carrot and Fennel Soup

If you've been reading this blog for a while you will know that I'm a huge soup fan. Whether it's creamy broccoli and cauliflower soup or sweet potato and carrot soup, we have soup either for lunch or dinner at least twice a week. So I make a lot of soups and I like to make them as varied as possible.

This roasted carrot and fennel soup is one I make over and over again and never get tired of. It is a lovely delicate soup yet big on flavour! Roasting the vegetables really brings out the sweetness from the carrots and fennel. Add that with the gentle flavour of thyme and then the hit of garlic, and voila you have a pretty amazing soup!

📝 What You'll Need

• Carrots -  to peel or not to peel? Here's my rule on this, if the carrots are organic I don't peel them, I just give them a scrub under a running tap. If they are not organic I peel them. 
• Fennel - when buying your fennel look for small, heavy, white bulbs that are unmarked and not browning. The stalks should be crisp with bright green fronds. I use the fronds as a garnish, waste not, want not!
• Thyme - fresh is best here, but you could swap it for a teaspoon of dried thyme if you can't get fresh.
• Stock - to keep this soup vegan I use a vegan vegetable bouillon to make the stock.

🥣How To Make It

1. Roast the carrots - to avoid the fennel burning I roast the carrots for a little while first. 
2. Add the fennel - after 10 minutes add the fennel and thyme to the carrots and roast for another 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Cook the onion celery and garlic - while the vegetables are roasting, cook the onion and celery. Once they are soft add the garlic and cook for a minute before you add the roasted carrots and fennel to the saucepan.
4. Add the stock - finally, add the stock to the saucepan and simmer for  15 minutes. Then blend the soup and serve immediately.

📋 Tips and Variations

• Pro Tip - Blending the soup - this soup is best once blended, I use a hand-held blender to do this. But if you want an even smoother soup I would blend the soup (either with a handheld blender or in a blender) then pour it through a sieve to catch any bits.
• Switch it up - other flavours that go very well with this is soup are ginger (fresh root ginger) or coriander (cilantro). 
• Garnish - the great thing about fennel is that you can use the whole plant, green leafy fronds and all. I use these as a garnish along with some sourdough croutons and a dollop of vegan yoghurt.
• Making ahead / storing - this soup can be made up to 3 days in advance. It will keep in the fridge once cooked then cooled, use within 3 days. You can easily freeze this soup - once cooled transfer to freezer suitable containers then freeze. Use within 3 months. Defrost overnight before reheating on the hob until piping hot.

Try these tasty soups next.

If you need more soup inspiration then I have you covered! My Spicy Vegetable Red Lentil Soup is warming and satisfying and great for lunch or dinner. My Spiced Carrot and Parsnip Soup is a very easy soup recipe made with just a few ingredients. All you need for this tasty soup are carrots, parsnips, onion, celery, spices and stock. It really is that easy. My Carrot and Coriander Soup is a lovely light, classic soup, spiced it up a little.

*This recipe was first published on this blog in Nov 2015. Updated Mar 2021 with new photos, recipe card and nutritional information.