Simple Carrot and Red Pepper Soup Recipe

Author:

SP learned to bake and cook by watching her mother. Now she loves to cook and bake quick and easy recipes that don't take long to make.

Homemade carrot and red pepper soup.
sangre

This is a soup I make quite frequently as it is pretty easy to assemble and only takes about an hour to make. It requires just a few ingredients and that take only about 10 to 15 minutes to prepare.

Everything is also cooked in the one saucepan as well. The main ingredient is carrots. I do add cabbage, as well, but if you don't like cabbage then you can just leave it out or add extra carrot and/or pepper.

I like this soup slightly thick, but if you prefer it to be a bit thinner then just add additional water till you get it to the consistency you like.

Cook Time


Prep time	Cook time	Ready in	Yields
10 min	50 min	1 hour	4 servings

Equipment

Chopping board
Knife
Measuring cups
Vegetable peeler
Measuring jug
Hand blender

Ingredients

1 vegetable stock cube
700 mL boiling water, divided
1 medium white onion
4 cups organic carrots
1 red pepper
2 cups cabbage (optional)
1 tablespoon oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

How to prepare and cook the vegetables for your carrot soup.
sangre

Instructions

Dissolve the vegetable stock cube in a measuring jug with 500 mL of boiling water. Set aside and let the stock cube soften. Once the vegetables are prepared you can use a spoon to stir the stock to dissolve the rest of the stock cube.
To prepare your carrots you need to rinse them in some water to remove any debris and dirt. Next you can either scrub the outside of the carrots with a brush specifically used for cleaning vegetables to help you remove any loose skin from the outside of the carrots. Then you need to chop the carrots up into small cube for the soup. If you prefer to remove the outside skin part of the carrots you can use a vegetable peeler to remove the top layer of the skin off the carrot and then chop them up into cube as mentioned above.
Next you need to wash your red pepper and then slice it in half. Remove the seeds from the inside of the pepper and then chop up each half of the pepper into four strips. Then chop up the pepper into small cube-size pieces.
To prepare your onion you need to remove the outer brown skin covering it and then slice it into four quarters. Chop the white onion up into small cube side pieces also similar in size to the carrots and the red pepper.
The next step is to prepare you cabbage. You need to wash the cabbage leaves and roughly chop then up into small size strips. You need about 2 cups of cabbage.
Sauté your onion and red pepper in a saucepan for about 10 minutes until they are soft but not brown. Next add your cups of carrots into the saucepan with the 500 mL of vegetable stock. You can add another 200 mL of boiling water to the saucepan with the 500 mL.
Let the vegetables simmer in the stock for about 30 minutes. Then add your cabbage to the vegetable and stock and cook for another 10 minutes till the vegetable are soften and the cabbage is cooked. Season with salt and pepper.
Set your soup aside to cool down for a bit and then using a hand blender or a blender either pulse your soup a few times until you get it to a consistency you like. You can either serve it with some chunky bits of vegetables still remaining in it, or if you like it smooth, then pulse it until it reaches a smooth consistency.

You can also add barley or red lentils to this soup. If you do so, add an extra 100 to 200 ml of water to the soup as the grains will absorb liquid as they cook.

Barley and Red Lentils: Optional Additions

If you like to add other ingredients to the soup you can. I have added barley and red lentils.
Since both of these will absorb water as they cook you will need to add additional water to the soup—otherwise your soup will end up like a thick paste.
It will still taste nice but if you prefer a soup that is similar to the consistency of gravy and not thick, then you will need to eye it and add around 100 to 200 mL of additional water to the soup until it reaches a consistency that you like.

Taste and Flavor

Even with the amount of carrots in this recipe as well as the cabbage you might be surprised to find that the red pepper is the more dominant flavor in this recipe. So again if you don't like red pepper then leave it out and instead add another two carrots.

You will still taste carrots but it just seems that the longer this is stored in the fridge then the stronger the taste of the pepper is.

Also since there is cabbage in this recipe you might be worried about the taste or smell. If you store it in an airtight container then you won't get that cabbage smell. But it will permeate the air when you open the container but the recipe does not have any taste of cabbage in it. So if you hate cabbage then you can leave it out.

How to Store the Soup

Once the soup is cooked and it has cooled down, you can freeze it or store it in a container in the fridge

I usually use this within one week as I take it to work for my lunch in a thermos.

How to Reheat

Saucepan: I pour the soup into a saucepan and also add about 50 mL of water to it. I put it on a medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes. I also stir it occasionally to ensure it doesn't stick to the saucepan.
Microwave: You can reheat this in the microwave for about 10 minutes on the highest heat setting. Initially I would set it for 5 minutes and then stir it and then put in in for the remaining 5 minutes. Since each model of microwaves is different, I would set it for 5 minutes, then take it out and stir it. Check to see how hot is is and then return it to the microwave till it is fully hot throughout. Again you might have to adjust this time for different microwaves as it will have different settings to the one I use.

Overcooked cabbage releases hydrogen sulfide. To avoid this cabbage smell you need to reduce the time it takes to cook your cabbage. So chop up your cabbage into smaller strips to reduce the cooking time.

Comments

Sp Greaney (author) from Ireland on December 28, 2020:

@Chitrangada Sharan, thank you. It's much more convenient to make batches to last a few days.

@Andrienne Farricelli, it's good to try out different things. Peppers are so versatile too. I think you can practically add them to any dish.

Adrienne Farricelli on December 27, 2020:

I have tried many types of soup, but this is a new one. I always seem to have some peppers hanging my fridge around with no particular use. I can see now how I can use them. Thanks for sharing.

Chitrangada Sharan from New Delhi, India on December 27, 2020:

This sounds delicious and nutritious. It’s good that it can be stored for a few days, and then can be used again after reheating.

Thank you for sharing the detailed instructions and helpful pictures.

Sp Greaney (author) from Ireland on December 27, 2020:

@Peggy W, thank you. Yes it's very tasty and also filing.

@Coffequeen, yes. It is always nicer to make your own homemade soups.

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on December 26, 2020:

That looks lovely. I think I'd enjoy this!

Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on December 26, 2020:

Your soup recipe sounds delicious and also nutritious. I love making homemade soups like this. Thanks for sharing your recipe.

Sp Greaney (author) from Ireland on December 26, 2020:

@ Cheryl E Preson, it is. It is very filling too.