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I’m so pleased to post this naturally gluten free and dairy free Cream of Carrot and Coriander Soup Recipe mainly because I think it has to be my favourite soup – EVER! That’s a big claim, especially after being brough up on my mums chicken soup, which is pretty awesome.
Obviously that last statement will tell you I’m not vegan, but I am dairy free so I have to cater for myself and my Coeliac daughter hence this recipe is for a dairy free cream of carrot soup.
Skip to the good bit
- Should I use fresh or dried coriander?
- What dairy free cream can I use in this carrot and coriander soup?
- How do you prepare the carrots for this soup?
- Fun fact about coriander!
- Batch cook this soup to save money
- Save even more money and microwave
- How to store your fresh soup when batch cooking
- Other soup recipe ideas
- Dairy Free Cream of Carrot and Coriander Soup Recipe
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Should I use fresh or dried coriander?
This recipe needs you to use green coriander. I say that because you can get ground coriander seeds, and that’s brown. ideally you’d use fresh coriander because if you’re a fan of coriander (like me) nothing compares to the fresh version.
That said, fresh coriander may be hard to come by or not in your budget so you can also use dried chopped coriander leaves. This is a good back-up as you’ll still achieve the little green flecks in the soup that I personally find so satisfying.
What dairy free cream can I use in this carrot and coriander soup?
No need to go out and source anything different to the normal dairy free cream you’d use. If making this for the first time and new to dairy free, then Alpro soya or Elmlea plant based creams are just fine for this recipe.
How do you prepare the carrots for this soup?
I’m not fussed about peeling my carrots, they’re washed and scrubbed if necessary but to make sure you get all the goodness and have no waste why not use the whole thing. The only bit I discard is the knot at top of the carrot. Applying physics is good if you want to save time and energy bills so cut your carrots up smaller if you want them to cook quicker.
Fun fact about coriander!
Did you know that coriander actually originates from Italy? [source] I hadn’t realised this, I’d always assumed it came from Asian shores. Now I’m trying to think of Italian dishes that have coriander in them???
Coriander leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible and can be harvested from mid-summer onwards.
Pick the leaves when young and use fresh or freeze for later. Regular picking encourages more leaves to sprout.
When plants start to flower, either pick the blooms to add to salads, or leave them to form seeds.
RHS – Coriander how to…
Batch cook this soup to save money
We can all agree that buying in bulk and cooking in batches is much more cost effective right? This is because bigger bags of fresh vegetables are cheaper. Also, firing up the oven just once to cook the vegetables is cheaper than remaking the whole recipe on another day from scratch.
The act of reheating soup is way more cost effective and using a microwave if you have one is considerably less in energy bills.
Did you say ‘Poppycock’! Don’t take my word for it, this really handy energy calculator is mildly addictive and comes in really handy when I’m invoicing people for recipe development. You do need to know a few things about your personal energy use first but once you know those factors you can work out how much it costs you to heat up a tin of beans to roasting a Sunday dinner to warming up your cold tea!
How much does it cost?
To make this Dairy Free Cream of Carrot and Coriander Soup I’ve worked out the cost using basic ingredients such as value carrots. If you buy in bulk, this price will go down. The energy costs are based on the current energy rates in the last quarter of 2022 with a capped rate of 0.52per kWh
250g Carrots – 0.10p
1 Knorr Stock Pot – 0.30p (based on a pack of 8 pots)
Fresh Coriander – 0.50p
Garlic Clove – 0.02p
100ml Dairy Free Cream – 0.34p
£1.39 for two servings (70p per serving)
To boil the vegetables it costs approx. 0.14p (max. 84p per serving)
Save even more money and microwave
Times are tough for many and I find myself looking for cheaper, quicker, more efficient ways to cook these days. However I don’t want to compromise on taste and nutrients.
Microwaving foods does leave you with a different flavour to roasting. So be prepared for a different end result if you chose to microwave rather than roast the veggies for this soup recipe. Basically, the flavours are less intense and slightly less sweet, but you may think that’s a good thing?
How to microwave vegetables
One way to microwave vegetables is to invest in a microwave steamer they’re easy to clean, have an integrated steam basket and the one linked holds vegetables for two people. They come with full instructions on how to use and what you can cook in them.
If you don’t like the idea of a plastic microwave steamer then you can make your own with a microwave-proof dish (I’ve used my glass Pyrex Casserole Dishes with lids in the past) then cover with microwavable plastic wrap or (and this is better for the environment) use a lid or upturned plate.
To arrange the veggies, simply prepare them as you would if using a conventional steamer, then arrange them in the microwave dish making sure there are plenty of gaps for the steam to travel around them.
Next add 1-2 tablespoons of water, that’s it – the vegetables will already be wet after you’ve rinsed them.
Heat on full power for 2-4 minutes depending on how hard your vegetables are*.
TOP TIP: heat for 30 seconds at a time and keep checking. Eventually you will know exactly how long different type of vegetables take to cook and become a microwave steaming pro!
* absolutely no point in me giving you exact times as everyone’s microwaves are different powers, mine is 900w for example, yours may be 700 or 800w.
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p.s. I have this on the back of a cupboard door in my kitchen – true story!
How to store your fresh soup when batch cooking
When batch cooking this Dairy Free Cream of Carrot and Coriander Soup, you not only save energy by only cooking the recipe once, but you also give yourself quick and easy lunches and dinner for the rest of the week or the following week for that matter.
I explain how to sterilise portion sized jar below but you can also ladle the soup into Tupperware containers to keep in the fridge. Note that if using Tupperware the shelf life of the soup will only be 4-5 days as you will not have gone through the sterilisation process first.
How to sterilise jars for your individual soup portions
Wash your jars* and the lids in hot soapy water, but do not dry them. Instead, leave them to stand upside down on a roasting tray while they’re still wet.
Pop the tray of clean, wet jars and lids in to a preheated oven at 160-180ºC for about 15 mins.
Using a funnel pour your soup into the jars. Be very careful not to touch or get any of the mixture onto the rim of the jars as this could introduce bacteria.
Ideally you want to fill the jars not quite to the top, leave about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) gap at the top between the soup and the lid.
While everything is still hot, secure the lids tightly.
Once in sterilised jars like this your soups should keep for about 1 month in the fridge probably longer.
*you could easily use 500g jam or cooking sauce jars
Other soup recipe ideas
For a full soup recipe collection and top tips on how to; make free from soups from scratch, thicken soup, source gluten free stock cubes and more head over to my Delicious Free From Homemade Soup Recipe Collection
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Dairy Free Cream of Carrot and Coriander Soup Recipe
If you make it and like the recipe I would be eternally grateful if you popped back and commented leaving a star rating as this will tell search engines that this recipe is worth checking out and others will get to find it in searches.
Dairy Free Cream of Carrot and Coriander Soup
Ingredients
- 250 g carrot(s) chopped roughly (no need to peel)
- 500 ml boiled water
- 1 vegetable stock I use gluten free Knorr Stock Pots [see notes for alternatives]
- 1 clove garlic (powder, puree or clove) Ideally a clove but you can use 1tsp of powder or puree.
- 40 g coriander I used fresh, you can use 2tsp of dried coriander leaves
- 100 ml soya cream or usual dairy free alternative I used Heavenly unsweetened cream
- salt & pepper to taste I used 8 peppercorns on this occasion and approx. 1tsp salt
Instructions
- Add the roughly chopped carrots (no need to spend time peeling) to a large saucepan and add the garlic clove (or powder/puree), the gluten free stock cube and the peppercorns (or a good few twists of the pepper mill).
- Pour 500ml of boiled water into the saucepan and boil for 5-8 mins (better to add a lid to prevent too much liquid escaping as steam.
- Once the carrots have softened either transfer into a blender and pulse until smooth or hand blend. I normally use my hand blender for this – less washing up.
- Once the carrots have been fully blended, add the fresh coriander and blitz again.
- Finally add the cream and stir in, adding salt to taste.
- If eating immediately pour into soup bowls and enjoy with your favourite gluten free bread.
- If saving for later pour into your sterilised jar or Tupperware and seal immediately
- Allow to cool completely before putting in the fridge.
Notes
I always use Knorr Rich Beef Stock pots in this chilli con carne but there are other versions of stock by Knorr that are also gluten free. I find the stock pots are often on multi-buy special offer so only buy them when this is the case. NOTE: gravy pots are NOT gluten free. Other stock pots are OXO who now have gluten free stock pots (not cubes, these are not currently gluten free). Kallo do gluten free stock cubes and granules and Marigold make gluten free and vegan Bouillon.
Nutrition
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Fantastic recipe! This soup was so flavourful and nutritious! My whole family loved it. Thank you.