Simple Fennel Soup

This simple fennel soup is creamy, nutritious and made using a handful of ingredients. It’s a delicious way of enjoying this vegetable, incredibly easy to make and perfect as a light meal. Made without potatoes or heavy cream and ready in under 30 minutes!

This delicious fennel soup is very simple to put together.  It is made by first gently cooking the fennel along with a handful of popular soup base ingredients (i.e. onion, garlic and celery) and then adding in stock.  This method helps bring out the lovely, sweetish, light aniseed flavour of the fennel. 

Fennel is an ideal vegetable to use in a soup.  It cooks quickly, retains its distinct, complex flavour in cooking and makes a surprisingly effective natural thickener.  So it can turn even a minimalist dish, such as this soup, into a flavourful meal. Plus it’s incredibly nutritious!

Good to know

Despite a generous amount of fennel in this soup the aniseed flavour is quite mellow. 

Ingredients and substitutions for making fennel soup

• Fennel bulbs: For maximum flavour use medium size, firm bulbs with bright green stalks.
• Spinach: Used for colour. You will not taste it in the finished dish.
• Butter: Adds flavour. Use plant-based spread for a vegan option.
• Oil: Used alongside the butter for ‘sweating’ the vegetables. Prevents the butter from browning.
• Fennel seeds: Intensify the flavour.
• Stock: Use either vegetable or chicken stock.

How to prepare the fennel

Start by rinsing your fennel bulbs thoroughly.  Cut off the roots (if present) and trim off the green stalks 1-2 inches above the bulb (they are quite tough and fibrous).  You can use the leafy fennel fronds that grow out of the stalks for garnish if you like.

Many recipes recommend cutting out the core of the fennel but it is not necessary to do for this recipe. You can chop it up along with the rest of the vegetables.

Cut the bulb lengthwise then cut the halves again so that you end up with 4 parts.  Slice each part across quite thinly (into approx. 5mm strips).

Top tip

Fennel discolours quickly so use it as soon as you’ve prepared it.

How to buy fennel bulbs

Look for firm bulbs, with no blemishes, dark spots etc.  The feathery tops (fronds) should be bright green.

Tips for storing

Store fresh fennel bulbs in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to 4 days.  Any leftover fennel pieces can be wrapped in a damp paper towel, placed in a plastic bag and refrigerates.

Step-by-step recipe instructions

1.In a large pot heat up the oil, butter and fennel seeds and cook gently until the butter has melted. 

2. Add the onion, garlic, celery and fennel, season lightly, stir and cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring often.

3. Cover, lower the heat and ‘sweat’ the vegetable mixture for about 10 minutes or until the fennel is tender, stirring often (do not let the vegetables brown).

4. Add most of the stock, cover and bring to the boil then lower the heat and cook for about 5 minutes.

5. Add the spinach and continue cooking for another minute. 

6. Remove from the heat and puree the soup.  Top up with the remaining stock if needed, adjust the seasoning and serve.

How to make this soup exceptionally creamy

If you only use a hand blender your fennel soup will be smooth and creamy but probably not exceptionally smooth and creamy! You might be ok with this but if you want to achieve truly fantastic results I recommend pureeing the soup in a high-speed blender (with or without using the hand blender first).  It’s best to do this in batches (especially if your soup is hot).

You can, theoretically, pass the soup through a fine mesh sieve, but the results aren’t as good.  The soup is likely to be thinner as a lot of the fennel pulp will simply not go through the sieve.

Using a blender means nothing gets wasted and you’ll enjoy a velvety smooth, creamy soup!

Serving suggestions

This fennel soup is delicious on its own but can also be served with a myriad of toppings including:

• Grated parmesan, or another strong hard cheese
• Crumbled feta
• Fresh chives or dill
• A dollop of sour cream or yogurt (or coconut yogurt for a vegan option)
• Croutons, garlic bread, cheesy breadsticks, soda bread, your favourite bread
• A drizzle of olive oil (or try adding a few drops of walnut oil)

Top tips

• If your fennel comes with long stalks you can add these into a soup (such as chicken broth) or stew for a hint of aniseed flavour.
• Once you’ve prepared the fennel bulbs use them immediately as fennel discolours quickly.
• ‘Sweat’ the vegetable mixture (fennel plus the rest of the vegetables) with a bit of seasoning before adding the stock.  This will help the fennel release more flavour.
• Use hot stock – the soup will cook faster.
• It is important to cook the soup very briefly once you’ve added the spinach (so it retains its bright green colour).
• Reserve some of the stock to add later (after you’ve pureed the soup) if necessary.  This fennel soup should be quite thick (adding too much stock may mask the flavour of the fennel or lessen its intensity).
• Best served hot.
• I like to use a generous amount of white pepper in this soup but black pepper will work too.
• Freeze for up to 3 months.

Other fennel recipes you might like

• Creamy Beet Soup with Fennel
• Pasta Bake with Fennel and Cherry Tomatoes
• Easy Vegetable Casserole with Roasted Vegetables & Beans

For more light meal ideas see my other soup and salad recipes.

Keep in touch!

If you make this creamy fennel soup recipe I’d love to know how it turned out for you. What ingredients did you use as garnish? Let me know in the comments below, thanks!

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