Carrot and orange soup may sound like an questionable prospect, at least on the surface, but when one considers how delicious juice of the same combination can be, supper immediately becomes that little bit more appealing. The world of food tends to have relatively stringent rules governing what is sweet and savoury and, as such, they merge infrequently. Most people aren’t particularly adventurous in their choice of sustenance, but there’s no reason to experiment and explore new combinations – an issue touched upon in my recipe for chocolate and hazelnut flapjacks. Granted, carrot and orange soup is far from brand-spanking, but it does generate intrigue and make people think for a second longer – perhaps it shouldn’t?
Whatever your thoughts on the flavour combination, there’s no denying that this dish, like almost every carrot-based soup out there, is visually striking. Though unsurprising, the vivid orange colour produced by this gaudy root vegetable always seems to engender a little shock and perhaps a modicum of awe. Of course, colour is an important characteristic to possess, especially in the world of soup where life would seem awfully bland and insipid without it. Strangely enough, a certain proclivity toward recipes that instigate the creation of toothsome bowls of carroty delight seems to have been developed in this small corner of the internet – just you check out my sweet potato and parsnip soup!
A good soup has a number of desirable qualities; frugality, complexity and a certain respect for healthy eating. This is perhaps why they tend to come across as so comforting, a hug in a bowl if you will. One is unlikely to experience a dearth of vitamin C when eating this, though a heightened sensitivity to light may be experienced due to the presence of carrots*. In any case, whatever draws you to soup carrot and orange is certainly a combination worth exploring.
*This is on old wives’ tale – carrots don’t really enhance your night time vision.
Carrot and Orange Soup {recipe}
Serves 4
Ingredients:
• 4 large carrots, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 stick of celery, diced
• 1 small handful of red lentils
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 2 oranges
• 1 tbsp honey
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
Method:
1. Fry off the onion and celery in a dash of olive oil, cook until translucent. Tip in the carrots and allow them to heat through. Add the zest of both oranges followed by vegetable stock and lentils. Boil until the carrot and lentils are soft through.
2. Blend the soup using either a stick blender or food processor. Add the juice of both oranges, honey and season to taste. Serve piping hot with a slab of bread.
Cost: Soup is not only the product of a desire to eat healthily; it is also the first child of frugality. Most soups are vegetable based and are therefore unremittingly cheap. Indeed, this soup will cost you no more than around £1.60 to make – soups away!
62 replies on “Carrot and Orange Soup”
This looks amazing! Definitely will try this one after shopping trip today!
Looks great! Roll on winter…
I love carrot and orange soup. But I have to disagree with your comment about carrots and eyesight. Like other red and orange vegetables, carrots contain pro-vitamin A, which is critical to vision.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear. Carrots are good for the eyes, but they don’t specifically help you see in the dark… which is what the famous phrase would have you believe!
Actually, I have to disagree again. Vitamin A is vital in making a specific pigment (rhodopsin) that is used by rod cells in the retina, which are highly responsive to small amounts of light and not sensitive at all to colour. These rod cells form our night vision and peripheral vision (as they are concentrated away from the ‘centre’ of our vision). One of the first signs of Vitamin A deficiency is night blindness. So therefore, carrots do support night vision, and the old wives tale is correct!
Source = My medical training =)
Wow, carrots and orange/shock and awe – never though I would see that association 🙂 Love the combo, especially for that price, thanks!
This sounds like a warmer version of my carrot and orange juice … in fact I’m gone … to the kitchen!
I’m a huge fan of ‘strange’ flavour combinations. This soup gave me some ideas for my blog… Thank you for the inspiration!
-JulieC
No problem – explore away!
stunning photography, and I can imagine a super delicious soup!
Looks lovely. I need to try this!
Sounds like a good combo to me. Pumpkin and green apple is also worth a try…
I shall keep it in mind!
I can smell that orange zest from here–my favorite!
A lovely and fragrant combination. Just what we need on a cold,bluster, rainy, wintery day. 🙂
You’re quite right, Karista! thanks
Amazing colour and very intrigued about the taste. One to try!
I’ve cooked carrots with orange juice but never thought to put the combination into a soup. Delicious! Carrots (and other orange/yellow veg) contain very high amounts of beta-carotene so are actually good for eyes and vision – but I think you’d probably have to eat rather a lot of them to make a difference!
You should! My point is that they don’t allow you to see in the dark, as per the famous phrase 😀
Excellent soup. Just the sort of thing I should be thinking about on this cold, windy Sunday.
It is indeed,Conor!
looks very good. will give it a try sometime. thanks for sharing your recipe. 😀
Reblogged this on thatoldschoolgirl's Blog.
Looks about perfect for a cold February afternoon. Great idea to add lentils to fill it out, too.
I love the lentils.
I was actually thinking of making a combination of carrot and orange something the other day, glad to see here that its been tried out and it looks great! x
It tastes great too, Sofia!
I am starting to see a pattern with blown up stoves…another blogger that I follow has just had to replace here stove as well…a new year…a new stove perchance? I was given an enormous bag full of carrots the other day. My friend couldn’t eat them all and pulled them up and dumped them into a garbage bag for me to take home. They were curiously devoid of orange and were pasty little things and I was just about to give them to my daughters (misery loves company 😉 ) when I decided to throw a few into last nights meal and discovered that they tasted AMAZING! My daughters are not going to get them now and I am SO going to use them for this scrumptious soup tonight. It’s shopping day and Steve is off to town and I just added a 3kg bag of Oranges to his list…this soup is perfect for any time of year and here in Tasmania the mornings and evenings are starting to get that hint of chill again as a reminder that we are edging slowly into autumn. This soup is going to make me smile tonight 🙂 Cheers for the recipe.
Not a new oven, but a replacement sheet of glass I expect… That’s a lot of carrot and orange… how much do you like soup?! Carrots can be loads of different colours, remember… even white and purple 😀
These were an insipid washed out yellow and my friend had told me that she wasn’t impressed with their colour (so methinks that they “should” have been orange) BUT the flavour was magnificent! I am sharing them between your carrot soup version and Chicca’s carrot soup version and am going to do a soup-down 😉
Oh I see – yes, I saw that too. Yum!
This sounds lovely!
Great post and great sounding soup. I surprised myself by liking sweet soups. I make a lot with butternut squash, sweet potato and parsnip, including a really good parsnip and apple one. I look forward to trying this orange and carrot one and your sweet potato and parsnip.
Thanks for broadening my addiction! Good thing I have organic carrots in the crisper and Mum and I just purchased 20 lbs each of oranges and pink grapefruit, direct from Texas, USA on our fruit dealer’s brother’s truck!
Another soup to add to my repertoire . . . and I do love that ‘hug in a bowl’! So true! Hot soup, cold soup, veg soup, fruit soup, clear soup, chunky soup, cream soup . . . mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Haha – that’s a lot. Get souping!
Love the photos, this looks great!
Here in Switzerland is snowing (I suppose it’s not a big surprise…) and a soup is certainly a very good idea! As usual you did a great job with the picture, I love it!
[…] time of year I think, as here too are some beautiful recipes posted recently by fellow bloggers Frugal Feeding and Natalie at Cook Eat Live […]
I can’t believe this, we must have the same inspirational door open or something! Chica Andaluza’s at it too. I love the idea of adding lentils to it, next time definitely. If I am ever in The South West I will have to find out where you like to eat, we have the same taste in food, apart from the meat obvs! 😉
I know, it’s weird! great soup from you too! Let me know when/if you’re down!
Fantastic. I love putting orange in things!
Me too 😀
You know that I really (really) will be making this one. Copying it out now. I just bought a giant bag of organic carrots….. I also have a fair amount of parsnips for the other recipe 🙂 p.s. I once worked for a legally blind man (seriously) he probably had about 5% of his vision and could mainly see outlines, but not color. He started drinking freshly pressed carrot juice several times a day. After a few months he asked me if I had changed my hair color. Indeed I had gone from brunette pixie cut to blonde pixie cut…. Not sure if the sight thing is an old wives tale.
Good! Haha! I more meant the fact it doesn’t help you see in the dark, which it doesn’t!
Ah, true 🙂
oohh, this sounds perfect for dinnre tomorrow night – if I only had s couple of oranges, I’d make it tonight…delicious (and vitamin packed) soup is perfect on a cold Maine winters night !
Awesome – hope you make it and like it!
Just so lovely.. it’s wonderful seeing color everywhere, it’s a nice change from winter fare. I’d be up for this flavor combination, it sounds lovely!
Thanks, Barb’! IT was very warming indeed 😀
What an interesting flavor combination… sounds delicious! My girls love anything citrus… they will even eat lemons plain if given the chance! Hope you have a great day. 🙂
Thanks! It was very yummy! Blimey… brave girls!
This looks refreshing and comforting! We recently made a carrot soup, too — but I had never thought to add orange! Thanks for sharing; I can’t wait to try this!
This soup doesn’t sound questionable at all! In fact, it sounds quite lovely. Plus, carrots keep my hair red!
I’m glad you think so! Indeed! Good ol’ red hair!
Carrot and orange is one of my favorites soup, looks delicious!
Reblogged this on Northern News and commented:
Frugal Feeding offers tasty, creative dishes like this soup — perfect for a chilly day or any day!
Wow!!! This looks incredible!!! Beautiful pictures, too! 🙂
I made this, it was so delicious that we ate it all up before we could photograph it!
You need to work on those urges 😀
Just made this for my dinner, absolutely fabulous! Quick, tasty and gluten free, great dish for the summer but I reckon with some herbs in it’d make a fantastic autumn/winter dish too
[…] in the back of my memory I’d retained the idea of this soup that I first read about on Frugal Feedíng’s Blog. The idea sounded kinda cool, but given that her posting was in our summer, it wasn’t […]
This is a recipe i’ve never tried. Sounds delcious though. Will be giving this a go for sure. Thanks
Simon