This carrot leek soup brings the flavors of earthy root vegetables together with mellow leeks and vibrant fresh thyme. The result is a nourishing, delicate soup that's also comes together in a cinch. It's simple to make, and a perfect use of the cool-weather vegetables you'll find at your farmers market.
Jump to Recipe | What's in it? | Tips | Variations
What's in it?
This soup is easy to make and made with simple ingredients you can find in just about any grocery store. Leeks, carrots, and celery form the bulk of the soup while fresh thyme gives a pleasant herbal note. Where a mushroom stew might be hearty, this carrot leek soup is light and delicate.
The vegetables and herbs simmer together in homemade chicken broth (you can also substitute vegetable stock or bone broth) until fall-apart tender. Then you'll add sour cream, which gives the soup a lovely creaminess, and blend them all together.
Tips for making good soup
Like most soups and stews, this recipe is both straightforward and simple. You begin first by sweating the vegetables with a little salt, then simmer them in hot broth until tender before pureeing the soup to a lovely, uniform creaminess.
Here are some more tips to keep in mind:
- Clean your leeks thoroughly. Leeks are grown in sandy soil and accumulate grit between their leaves. Clean them by soaking the leeks in water, draining, and giving them a final rinse to remove all the sand and dirt.
- Cut your vegetables into uniform pieces so that they cook evenly.
- Sweat the vegetables, don't sauté them. Because this soup has a delicate, fresh flavor you'll want to sweat your vegetables instead of sautéing them. Cook them in hot fat with a sprinkle of salt so that they release their liquid, becoming tender without browning.
- Cook your vegetables until they fall apart when pressed with a fork, but avoid cooking them much longer lest they taste too sweet or overcooked.
- Purée the soup completely, adding more liquid if necessary. This soup is meant to be delicate and smooth, so puree it completely before serving to ensure any large bites of carrot are suitably broken up.
- If you don't have an immersion blender, use an upright blender instead. Work in batches, filling the blender only ⅓ full at a time, to blend the soup until completely smooth.
- Save any extra carrot tops to make carrot top pesto.
Variations
Make it dairy-free by swapping olive oil for ghee and blending soaked cashew nuts and a squeeze of lemon in place of the sour cream.
Swap shallots for the leeks, and add lemongrass and ginger in place of fresh thyme. Swap the sour cream for full-fat coconut milk.
Top the soup with toasted mustard seeds and microgreens or with toasted pumpkin seeds.
Amanda Ryal-Mason says
Just made this, and it was super easy and very tasty. Even the resident picky eater enjoyed it. I think I'll try the toasted mustard seeds next time, that sounds delish. Def adding this to the recipe keepers. Wonder how it will turn out if I use all purple carrots....!
Jenny McGruther says
So happy you liked it!
kristen cole says
My 8 year old son likes it so it is a winner in my book!!
Gladys DeJesus says
Súper delicious with few ingredients. Highly recommend making them. Yum!
Lizzie says
Super tasty
I had to use Olive oil and half shallots as I DID NOT have enough Leeks and no Ghee
Will be making again for sure. So easy and SO TASTY
Brushjl says
Agree with other reviewers, the soup is fabulous. Jenny gets every ounce of deliciousness out of every vegetable. I loved how the flavor of the vegetables was enough (thought I added a couple drops of Tabasco to my serving).
Lisa says
I picked up some beautiful leeks and carrots at the farmers market. I am dairy free so I used plant butter instead of ghee and substituted dairy free cream cheese for the sour cream. Holy moly! It is absolutely delish! Thank you for this simple and spectacular recipe!
Delton peele says
Found some good looking carrots in the organic section and had a craving for leeks.... Which also looked looked good .... And got home , found this recipe , figured out how make Ghee since I've never heard of it thought why not ... Long story short... Turnt out really good . Like really really good. Even though I used bullion cubes and instead of the sour cream I put about two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice into a cup of half and half.... Then blended at the end .... I also did put the toasted mustard seed on top ...
Awesome soup thanks for the recipe.
Alek says
I tired the lemongrass and ginger variation. It's seriously delicious.
Leda David says
Loved this recipe. It was really easy to make.
Ely says
Fabulous! I had to make a few changes like using vegetable broth and added garlic powder, onion powder and white pepper. It is a very nice recipe!
Odette Heinrich says
Absolutely divine !!! So easy and so tasty 😋💜 going into my personal family recipe book !
Janice Raven says
I have a question - how much leek by weight? I love that you said 2 lbs of carrot, but my leeks are all different sizes and I have no idea what size a medium leek might be.
Jenny McGruther says
A medium leek is about 9 ounces, so aim for about 27 ounces.
Trish M Olow says
Yummy! The only thing I did differently was added a big handful of the microgreens on the top, not just a sprinkle! Thanks for teaching me about roasted mustard seeds. I've never used them as a topping. Nice! Very good soup.
4waystoyummy says
Wow, I make soup each week and thought I knew them all. I know, there's no such thing! This sounds delicious and even more so when I can pull and use my own leeks/carrots fromt he garden! Thank you!
Randi Tatsch says
We are making this for dinner tonight! Its perfect since we had leeks and an abundance of carrots from our CSA box. The smell of the mustard seed as you take the lid off is so tantalizing! Can't wait to try it.
Gayle says
Made this tonight with our own winter carrots and it was wonderful !!! I did roast the carrots with whole cloves of garlic , olive oil , salt and pepper in the oven first before adding to the leeks. The toasted mustard seeds really sent this over the top ! I felt like I was on a date with my husband at some fancy restaurant ! so easy too ! Thank you !
Emilie says
I made this last night for our family and it was fantastic! Thanks for the recipe!
Wendy Wolff says
I just made this and it was DELICIOUS! Thank you!
Makenna says
So excited for our Friday farmers market to get a bunch of carrots! We are almost completely eating from the farmers market and have been looking for something new and fresh! I'll have to serve this with some meat on the side or a grilled cheese!
Love all your ideas and photos!