Right then, you lot asked for it: the posh-but-still-cheap version of my famous roasted carrot soup, now turbo-charged with proper chicken stock. Same lazy method, same ten-quid kitchen, but suddenly it tastes like you’ve been simmering bones since last Tuesday. Ridiculously good, ridiculously easy, and it’ll have your mates swearing you’ve secretly enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu.
Serves 4 very happy people or 6 with dainty portions
Prep 10 mins | Cook 45 mins
Total cost still under a fiver if you’re not daft with the stock
Ingredients (affiliate links = stuff I actually use and earn a few pennies from, cheers ducks)
- 1kg carrots (wonky ones, the sweeter the better)
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 4 fat garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 3 tbsp olive oil (this one – decent but won’t bankrupt you)
- 50g butter (real butter)
- 1 heaped tsp ground cumin
- 1 heaped tsp ground coriander
- Salt & loads of cracked black pepper
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 800ml–1 litre proper chicken stock (homemade if you’re smug, otherwise this one is my store-bought cheat and it’s bloody lovely)
Method – Still Brain-Dead Simple
Crank the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, gas 6). Foil-line a roasting tray unless you enjoy scrubbing.
Chuck the carrots (peeled or not, I still can’t be arsed), onion, and unpeeled garlic into the tray. Drizzle with olive oil, scatter the cumin, coriander, tons of salt and pepper, then toss like you mean it.
Roast 35–45 mins, shaking once. You’re after proper blistered edges and that “someone’s cooking something filthy” smell wafting through the house.
Tip the lot into a big pot. Squeeze the now-soft garlic from its skins, add the butter and 800ml of hot chicken stock. Blitz with a stick blender (still using this absolute legend of a machine after 13 years) until it’s smoother than a Tory’s excuse.
Slosh in more stock if you like it thinner, then hit it with the lemon juice. Taste – it’ll probably want another pinch of salt and a heroic crack of pepper. Adjust until it makes you go “blimey” out loud.
Serve scalding hot with crusty bread drowned in butter, maybe a swirl of cream if you’re feeling rock-and-roll.
Why this version is even better
- Chicken stock turns it from great to “shut up and give me the recipe” territory
- Still freezes brilliantly – your future self will want to kiss you
- Proper restaurant depth for about 90p a portion
Go on, make a massive pot. Your January self (and your wallet) will thank you.
My Amazon kit for this exact soup
→ The stick blender that refuses to die
→ My emergency decent chicken stock (no shame)
→ Odysea PDO Kalamata Extra Virgin Olive oil I actually buy by the crate
→ Real butter (because spreadable is for quitters)
Slurp, swear, repeat.
