Parsnip and Carrot Soup with the Thermomix® is on our table whenever the root vegetable box from the organic shop is full and we have little time. The soup needs no cream, because two root vegetables bring enough starch on their own to deliver the creaminess.
The parsnip brings the earthy, sweet character, the carrot adds colour and a second layer of sweetness, and the sweet potato is the real reason nothing else needs to be used as a thickener here. This combination of starches makes the soup so dense after just 25 minutes of cooking that we only need to blend it and stir in the soured cream. Anyone who knows the classic cream version will realise after the first bowl that this step is simply unnecessary.
Parsnip and Carrot Soup with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 15 ✓
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 piece ginger (2 x 2 cm)
- 1 tbsp oil
- 250 g parsnips
- 200 g carrot
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50 g orange juice
- 200 g sweet potato
- 700 g vegetable stock
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 pinch cumin
- 2 slices white bread
- 20 g butter
- 2 spring onions
- 100 g soured cream
Instructions 0 / 10
-
1
Chop garlic and ginger.
Peel the garlic, peel the ginger, place in the mixing bowl and chop for 3 sec / speed 8, then push down with the spatula.
-
2
Sweat.
Add the oil to the mixing bowl and cook for 3 min / Varoma / speed 1.
-
3
Prepare parsnips and carrots.
Meanwhile, peel the parsnips and carrots and add to the mixing bowl in pieces. Add the sugar and sweat for 5 min / Varoma / speed 1.
-
4
Sweat.
Add the orange juice to the mixing bowl and cook for 5 min / 100°C / speed 1.
-
5
Prepare sweet potatoes.
Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato, cut into pieces and add to the mixing bowl.
-
6
Cook.
Add the vegetable stock, turmeric and cumin to the mixing bowl and cook for 10 min / 90°C / speed 1.
-
7
Fry the croutons.
Meanwhile, cut the white bread into small cubes and fry in a pan with the butter until golden.
-
8
Cut the spring onions into rings.
-
9
Blend the soup by increasing the speed gradually up to speed 7, then add the spring onions and soured cream and mix for 4 sec / reverse direction / speed 4.
-
10
Serve the soup scattered with the croutons.
Tip: You can vary the ingredients to your taste. Increase the proportion of carrots or sweet potatoes, for example.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why three root vegetables instead of one
Most parsnip soup recipes only use parsnip and cream. That tastes one-dimensional and relies on artificial creaminess from a carton. We use 250 g parsnips, 200 g carrots and 200 g sweet potatoes. This ratio does three things at once: the parsnip provides the main flavour, the carrot gives the soup a vibrant colour rather than a pale beige, and the sweet potato supplies the extra starch that holds everything together without any further thickening.
The order matters. We chop garlic and ginger first for 3 seconds at speed 8, then sweat for 3 minutes at Varoma in the oil. Next, the parsnips and carrots go into the mixing bowl in rough pieces, along with the teaspoon of sugar. 5 minutes at Varoma on speed 1 is the most important step in the whole recipe: here the sugar caramelises lightly on the root vegetables and builds the roasted notes that later give the blended soup its depth.
What makes this recipe special
- Orange juice instead of wine for deglazing. 50 g orange juice goes into the mixing bowl after the roasting, 5 minutes at 100°C / speed 1. The acidity lifts the sweetness of the root vegetables without pulling the character of the soup towards a main course sauce. Wine would be too dominant here, water too bland.
- Keep the cooking time short. After adding the sweet potatoes and 700 g vegetable stock, 10 minutes at 90°C, speed 1 is enough. Cooking at 100°C loses the sweet top note of the parsnip. At 90°C the core character is preserved and the vegetables are still soft enough to blend.
- Blend gradually up to speed 7. Do not go straight to speed 10. We increase slowly from speed 1 up to 7 because this releases the starch from the sweet potatoes evenly and makes the soup velvety. At speed 10 it becomes fine but airy and loses its density.
The most common mistakes we have made ourselves
Parsnips cut too thick
Parsnips look like white carrots but are more fibrous at the core. If you throw them into the mixing bowl in 4 cm pieces, after 10 minutes of cooking you will still have small hard strips that spoil the blended result.
Our solution: Quarter the parsnips lengthways and cut into 2 cm pieces. Carrots and sweet potatoes can be left slightly larger as they soften more quickly.
Soured cream added too early
We used to add the soured cream before blending. When blending gradually it turns grainy, because the acidity meets the hot vegetables.
Our solution: Blend first, then add the 100 g soured cream with the spring onion rings and mix for just 4 seconds on reverse direction / speed 4. The reverse direction stops the spring onions from being cut up, and the soured cream stays creamy.
Croutons toasted too far in advance
If you toast the bread cubes in the pan an hour ahead, you end up with croutons from a bag: dry, hard and flavourless.
Our solution: While the soup is in its final 10 minutes of cooking, we toast the two slices of bread in the pan with 20 g butter until golden. The timing is exactly right so the cubes are still warm and buttery when served.
Variations we actually make
With toasted pumpkin seeds instead of bread. In autumn we toast 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds in a dry pan for 3 minutes without any fat, and scatter them over the soup instead of the bread cubes. Gluten-free and with a nuttier flavour.
With coconut milk instead of soured cream. For a vegan version, replace the 100 g soured cream with 100 g coconut milk. It pairs surprisingly well with the turmeric and cumin, as the soup takes on a more Asian character.
With an apple. Instead of the 200 g sweet potato, we use 1 large tart apple (Boskoop, about 150 g peeled) and 100 g floury potato. The soup becomes lighter, more fragrant and works better in spring.
With roasted parsnip crisps as a topping. When we have guests, we use a mandoline to slice an extra parsnip thinly, fry the slices in oil at 160°C and lay them on top of the soup. This gives the crunch that the creamy base otherwise lacks.
What we serve alongside
The parsnip and carrot soup works as a starter or as a light main course with bread. We like to eat it with a slice of homemade spelt baguette made in the Thermomix®, which is neutral enough in flavour not to overpower the sweetness of the root vegetables. On cold days we switch between this soup and our pumpkin soup, sweet potato soup or classic potato soup. For something more hearty, the gyros soup or the cheese and leek soup are the right choice. If you want to make your own stock, use our vegetable paste for vegetable stock or the spice paste for meat stock.
Storing and reheating
The soup keeps for 3 days in the fridge in a sealed container. To reheat, return it to the mixing bowl and warm for 5 minutes at 90°C, speed 1. Reheating it directly in a saucepan risks the starch from the sweet potatoes catching on the bottom.
Freezing works well. We portion the soup into 500 ml containers and freeze it without the soured cream. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat and stir in the fresh soured cream and spring onions just before serving. With soured cream already in it, the soup splits after thawing and looks watery, and the flavour suffers too.
Always prepare the croutons and the soured cream and spring onion topping fresh. They go soggy when reheated.
How other recipes approach this
Comparing with other Thermomix® versions, we see three main differences. We use a ratio of roughly 2:1 in favour of parsnips; other recipes go 1:1 or tip the balance towards carrots. Cookidoo® and the recipe community sweat the onion, garlic and ginger first for 3 minutes at Varoma on speed 1 in the mixing bowl, which gives a stronger depth than our more direct approach. At the finishing stage the paths diverge: coconut milk with a pinch of turmeric makes the soup golden and more exotic, while toasted pumpkin seeds or dark bread croutons as a topping add the bite that our cream-based version deliberately leaves out.
