Winter Root Vegetable Soup

This root vegetable soup is made from scratch using roasted vegetables for maximum flavour. Most of the work is done in the oven and the soup itself cooks in under 10 minutes!

See also Polish-style root vegetable stew!

This root vegetable soup is a warming, hearty dish, healthy, delicious as well as incredibly easy to make thanks to my simple method. 

Rather than throwing all the vegetables in the pot (as you would do with most soups) I roasted them first. Every vegetable in this winter root vegetable soup is roasted (including the onion and garlic), which makes it a very uncomplicated, practical sort of dish. Once roasted, the vegetables cook briefly (no longer than 10 minutes!) with some stock and the soup is ready to be served.

Root vegetables are particularly well suited to being roasted as they come out of the oven looking vibrant, full of delicious aroma and sweet nutty flavour (mashed roasted rutabaga and carrots are good examples). This is exactly how I would describe this soup.

You might also like this speedy sweet potato spinach soup where I've used a similar method.

Root vegetable soup ingredients and substitutes

• Carrots: one of the most popular root vegetables.
• Parsnips.
• Celeriac/celery root: this somewhat underrated root vegetable is full of flavour and works especially well in soups (it's the backbone of most Polish soups) and I strongly recommend you don't omit it.
• Red onion: use brown/yellow onion instead, if preferred.
• Potatoes: I used a combination of sweet and white potatoes (to balance the sweetness of the other ingredients) but you can just use sweet potato if you like.
• Garlic: gets roasted with the root veggies for more flavour.
• Herbs and spices: I used herbes de Provence, but you can use Italian or another flavour combination. I also added paprika for colour.
• Stock.
• Oil: use either olive or vegetable oil.
• Butter: enhances the flavour. Use dairy or plant-based.
• Salt and pepper to taste: I recommend rainbow coloured peppercorns for added flavour.

Do I have to peel the veggies

The carrot and parsnip can be used without peeling (just scrub and wash them thoroughly). Celery root, on the other hand, has a knobbly skin and it's not always easy to clean so I recommend peeling it. But ultimately the choice is yours.

How to make soup with root vegetables

1. Prepare vegetables: Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C/200 fan/gas mark 7. Peel (or scrub) and chop the vegetables into similar size pieces (leave garlic unpeeled). Place in a large bowl (without the garlic), add the herbs and paprika, season with ½ teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of oil. Stir thoroughly.

2. Roast vegetables: Spread the vegetables on a large baking sheet lined with parchment and roast in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes until tender. Remove from the oven.

3. Chop onion and garlic: Peel the garlic and chop roughly along with the onion.

4. Cook soup: Place all the vegetables in a pot (including the onion and garlic), add the stock (hot) then cover and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5-8 minutes (until the vegetables are soft enough to mash easily, but don't overcook it).

5. Adjust texture: Remove from the heat, stir in the butter and partly mash the soup using a potato masher (or hand blender) to a thick, chunky texture. Adjust the seasoning if needed and serve.

Serving suggestions

This hearty root veggie soup is filling and can be enjoyed as a meal, especially if you serve it with garlic bread, spinach bread, sun dried tomato bread or breadsticks. You could also:

• Garnish it with fresh herbs, such as thyme (lemon thyme works especially well) or parsley. Add pumpkin seeds for crunch.
• Drizzle over a bit of olive oil, sriracha sauce for added heat, coconut milk or cream.
• Sprinkle grated cheese, such as parmesan or gruyere (for a non-vegan option).
• Serve with cooked lentils (about a tablespoon per portion), rotisserie chicken or leftover Thanksgiving turkey for added protein.

Can I puree this soup

Yes, you can! I wanted my vegan root vegetable soup to be somewhere between chunky and smooth so I only used a potato masher to break up the larger vegetables. This thickened it naturally but the soup still retained lots of texture. 

You can go ahead and puree it though I recommend trying the potato masher method first. You might like it!

How to add more flavour

This winter soup with root vegetables is delicious as it is but you could add a different flavour twist, including:

• lemon juice: to offset the sweetness of the vegetables (add a drizzle to each serving).
• ground cumin and/or coriander: either coat the vegetables before roasting or add into the pot (½-1 teaspoon each).
• fresh ginger: add about 2 teaspoons of finely grated ginger to the pot along with the vegetables.
• red pepper flakes: use either sweet or hot and add to taste.

What other vegetables can be used 

This chunky root vegetable soup is very adaptable, can be made all year round, not just in the winter months, using seasonal root vegetables. These might include kohlrabi, turnip or yams. You can mix and match and simply use your favourite combination. 

You can add roasted beets but bear in mind your soup will have a red colour. Beets also have an intense flavour which can overpower the other vegetables so for me personally beets don't work in this recipe (it's better to use beets in a recipe where they are the star ingredient - for example borscht).

Top tips 

• Chop the vegetables into similar sized chunks so they cook evenly.
• Roast the vegetables until tender.
• It is important not to cook this roasted vegetable soup for too long (I cooked mine for 7 minutes from the time it started boiling) so the vegetables retain their flavour.
• Adjust the amount of stock to suit your taste. 
• Best served hot.
• Tastes delicious the next day, too. Refrigerate for up to 3 days.
• Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

More vegetable soup recipes to try next

• Red Vegetable Soup (Vegan)
• Red Cabbage Winter Vegetable Soup
• Roasted Sweet Potato Soup with Spinach
• Easy Vegetable Mulligatawny Soup

See also these other easy, delicious soup recipes including creamy vegan soups!

Recipe

Keep in touch!

If you've made this easy root vegetable soup recipe I'd love know how it turned out for you. Let me know in the comments below, thanks!

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for regular recipe updates! Or you could subscribe to this blog and receive all my latest recipes right into your mailbox!