Roasted Carrot Soup with Ginger, Turmeric, & Cardamom

I love ethnic spices, especially in soups. This roasted carrot soup is rich in warming spices of ginger, turmeric, and cardamom with a touch of cooling nut milk. This easy soup is low in calories, oil-free, vegan, and and naturally gluten free.

I received carrots, onions, and potatoes this week as part of my CSA farm share. I immediately started wondering what to make, and I decided on soup!

Roasted veggies make easy and flavorful soups
One of my favorite and easiest ways to make soup is to use roasted veggies as my base. I thought of the idea when I had a significant amount of vegetables in the refrigerator, and we were leaving for vacation. I needed to find a way to cook the veggies and freeze them. I decided to roast them all. The result was a deliciously tasty blend of incredibly flavorful veggies. 

My daughter in law Wendy said, " Why don't you just blend those roasted veggies in the Vitamix with vegetable broth." That's exactly what I did and to my surprise I ended up with a  quick and simple soup that tasted outstanding.

That is how I started using roasted vegetables as a base for my soups. Roasting vegetables brings out the veggie's sweetest flavor and adds a wonderful richness to soups.  

It's is so easy too. 
To make this soup, I simply lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper, cut up my carrots into spears, sliced my potatoes, and sliced my onion. Tossed the trio in *olive oil (I no longer use oil- see notes on bottom of page how I roast oil-free) and Himalayan salt spread them on the lined cookie sheets and then baked at 400 for about 45 minutes until the veggies were done. While the veggies were roasting, I was free to do other things.

When the veggies were ready, I allowed them to cool, then tossed them into the Vitamix with 4 cups of flavorful vegetable broth and the spices. 

Spices add flavor, nutrients, & antioxidants 
If you like ginger, turmeric, and cardamom, you will love the intriguing taste of this light aromatic soup. There are many reasons to include spices in your cooking. Natural spices are very high in antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and vitamins. Unfortunately, processed foods often contain artificial flavoring and coloring which not only does not add to our health, those artificial products may actually interfere with our health. 

My husband gave this soup an A+ ( of course he loves all my soups) and ate it with leftover triple bean salad. 

Author: Judee Algazi @Gluten Free A-Z Blog
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Roasting Time: 45 minutes
Blender Time: 2 minutes

Ingredients:
1 pound of carrots, sliced into large sticks
2 medium potatoes, sliced in thick rounds
2  large onions, sliced in thick half moons
1/8 cup of olive oil *or aquafaba (see below in notes)
Himalayan or sea salt and cracked pepper to taste
4 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom or substitute graham masala ( different flavor) 
Optional: 1 tablespoon of nut milk added to each bowl

Directions for roasting
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper
Slice the vegetables 
Place vegetables in a large mixing bowl and toss with the olive oil or aquafaba to keep this recipe oil-free . 
Distribute over the cookie sheets. 
Roast for 45-50 minutes until all veggies begin to be soft but roasted.
Remove and allow to cool. 

Directions for assembling soup: 

1. Place 2 cups of cooled roasted carrots, 1 cup of roasted onion, all of potatoes ( and any juice from roasting) into the Vitamix or strong blender. 

2. Add the turmeric, ginger, and cardamom ( or graham masala or curry powder if you prefer) along with the vegetable broth. 

3. Process until smooth. 

4. Add to bowls and mix in 1 Tablespoon of nut milk to each bowl and garnish with the leftover roasted carrots ( chop them to bite size) and onions which have become caramelized from the roasting. 

5. This soup also tastes good chilled as well

MY NOTES: 

Update 2024: I now cook oil-free. I've had to make adjustments to my cooking. Instead of coating my vegetables in calorie dense olive oil, I now toss my vegetable in aquafaba (the liquid from cooked chickpeas) and roast them the same way I always did. They come out great at 1/2 the calories. 

*** Personally, I really like this soup cold! Make it, refrigerate it, and eat it cold-. If you like hot soup, then by all means heat it up.

I like this soup with a variety of seasonings- cardamom or graham masala or curry powder (but not all together).

 If you are looking for gluten-free substitutes for cookies, cake, crackers, breads etc - it is not the focus of the recipes on this blog. I feature naturally gluten free recipes that are health giving and promote a healthy gut!

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