Spicy Thai Carrot Soup

Creamy, spicy thai carrot soup ready in just over 30 minutes. This soup is easy to pull together and is low on the calories! I serve it with sautéed spinach on top and a handful of chopped peanuts. Plus, it’s unintentionally vegan! 

Welcome to Meatless Monday vibes ✌?

This weekend was full of so many things. A big chunk of it went towards converting a large portion of our house into a proper area designated entirely for the blog. From the time we moved in (almost 1.5 years ago) i’ve been setting up a portable table near the window in our breakfast nook and hauling it out every evening. It doesn’t seem like such a huge task when I talk about it now but you’re really not taking my laziness into account here. So this week Anees and I finally cleared out the upstairs loft area of our house and moved every piece of photography equipment to the room and now LSJ has a proper studio. I’m just glad it’s still in the house so the dress code remains the same: yoga pants all day, everyday. ??

Moving along.

It feels weird to be bringing you soup in April because I don’t really know the rules about eating soup once it’s spring. But my thai carrot soup is so much goodness overload that I didn’t want to wait until later in the year to share it. And unlike the warm Texas weather, I hear a lot of the northern sates are still buried in snow so this spicy carrot soup should help thaw you out a bit.

We’re talking about ALL REAL food. Lots of carrots, onions, garlic, and ginger and then we follow it up with red curry paste and a little curry powder. And the best thing is, this contains ZERO cream. Like most of my soups, I use nut butters (think pesto in the Italian soups) rather than cream to add that richness we love. So that makes this thai carrot soup completely dairy-free and vegan friendly.

Thai inspired food is nothing new around here. Have you made my Thai Butternut Squash Red Curry yet? This recipe is everything that red curry has to offer but in soup form. And stating the obvious here, we’re taking out the butternut squash and subbing carrots.

What I love about thai food is that you get the perfect balance of spicy, sweet, and salty. And this healthy carrot soups hits all of those marks. I made this soup on the stove but you can easily make it in a slow cooker too. Plus, we’re sautéing a little spinach and adding it to our bowls to make it more of a complete meal. A big hunk of crusty bread on the side and you’re totally speaking my lunch love language.

Let’s jump into the thai carrot soup recipe. One thing I always suggest doing when making thai food is using coconut oil. I find that since a lot of thai cuisine usually contains coconut milk, the flavors really work well with coconut oil. If you aren’t a fan or don’t have any, swap it for canola or vegetable, it’ll work just fine.

We start by sautéing the onions, ginger, and garlic. This really helps flavor the oil and carries well throughout the recipe. If you decide to make this is the slow cooker, it’s an optional step, you can easily dump everything in and let it cook. But personally, I find that sautéing your aromatics in a little bit of oil really helps brighten the overall dish. I have this weird thing about meals made in the slow cooker (and it’s probably just me). If I don’t brown the meat (or the onions) I feel like everything made in the slow cooker has this one distinct taste. Anyone else with me? Nope, just me?

This soup will take you in the ballpark of 40 minutes to make and makes enough for 4 dinner size servings or about 6 smaller ones. The sautéed spinach and the chopped peanuts are optional but I really like how they provide a little more texture to otherwise pureed and adultified baby food. <– Ain’t that the truth?

As with most thai food, this soup actually tastes better with time so your thai carrot soup lunch will most definitely pack on more flavor than last nights dinner.

This soup recipe goes out to all my vegan food loving god(desses). Know that I feel ya if your meat-loving significant other doesn’t feel just as passionately about it. ?

You do you! Make Thai carrot soup to make lunchtime exciting again! ??

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Yield: 4 main servings or 6 small

Spicy Thai Carrot Soup

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Creamy, spicy thai carrot soup ready in just over 30 minutes. This soup is easy to pull together and is low on the calories! I serve it with sautéed spinach on top and a handful of chopped peanuts. Plus, it's unintentionally vegan! 

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Ingredients

Carrot soup:

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon ginger paste (minced works too)
• 1 ¼ pounds carrots, peeled and cut into ¼ inch slices
• 1-3 tablespoons red curry paste (to taste)*
• 2 teaspoons mild yellow curry powder
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup peanut butter (crunchy/smooth, either works)

For serving:

• chopped peanuts and sautéed spinach (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute it for 3-4 minutes or until the onions turn translucent. Add the ginger paste and continue to cook for 30 seconds. Add the carrots, curry paste, curry powder, vegetable broth, brown sugar, and peanut butter and allow the soup to come to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 30-35 minutes or until the carrots are tender.
2. Ladle the soup into a blender and puree till smooth or use an immersion stick blender right in the pot. If the soup seems a little thin to your preference, allow it to come back to boil and let simmer for another 5 minutes. Season with additional salt to taste
3. To saute the spinach - just add a drizzle of oil to a pan. Add ~ 3 cups of baby spinach and season with salt and pepper. Push the spinach around the pan and allow for it to wilt, about 2-4 minutes. You can season with a pinch of garlic powder for added flavor if you'd like.
4. Serve bowls of carrot soup with the sautéed spinach and chopped peanuts.

Notes

• For the red curry paste using 3 tablespoons will certainly make this soup SPICY. It's a little too spicy for our taste so we prefer it around 2 tablespoons. For a milder soup, I suggest using 1 tablespoon. Adding a couple tablespoons of cream or coconut milk will also help mellow out the heat if you find it ends up being a little spicy for your taste.
• SLOW COOKER: You can easily make this soup in the slow cooker as well. One method is to dump everything in and let it go for 4-5 on high or 7-8 on low. Blend before serving. The other option is to saute the onions/garlic/ginger as stated in step #1 then dumping everything into a slow cooker. I find this develops the flavors a little better but either method will work.

Have you made this recipe?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below. You can also share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #LITTLESPICEJAR, I'd love to see what you made!

Nutritional facts are for 6 servings with 1 tablespoon of chopped peanuts.