Sweet potato soup
Sweet potato soup made with good-for-you ingredients like sweet potatoes, carrots, fresh ginger, and a hint of spice!
Top it off with roasted crunchy pepitas, crispy chickpeas, and toasted coconut flakes for a delicious and filling weeknight dinner or lunch!
Add this sweet potato soup to your Thanksgiving menu. Since it’s dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan, it’s perfect when you need to accommodate different dietary preferences.
As soon as the weather cools, soups are on a regular rotation at our house.
This sweet potato soup, along with our curried butternut squash soup, and our creamy cauliflower soup, are some of our favorites. I’ve been having a big bowl of soup every day for lunch with some sourdough bread on the side for dipping.
It’s creamy (without adding any heavy cream or milk), comforting, deliciously rich in flavor, filling, and comes together in just under an hour.
Sweet potatoes give the soup its sweet flavor, vibrant orange color, and silky smooth texture.
Ingredients and substitution suggestions
To make this quick and easy vegan soup, you only need a handful of ingredients:
- Sweet potatoes – peeled and diced into small chunks. If you don’t have sweet potatoes on hand, use butternut squash or pumpkin instead.
- Carrots – fresh carrots are best for this soup. Chop them into similar-sized chunks as the sweet potatoes to ensure they cook at the same time. You don’t have to peel them if you don’t want to.
- Onion, ginger, garlic – add depth and flavor. Because this soup has so few ingredients, I recommend using fresh ginger. I use a Microplane grater to grate it easily.
- Vegetable stock – I always use my vegetable stock powder (1 1/2 teaspoon for 1 liter of water), but stock cubes are absolutely fine. If you are okay with it not being vegan, chicken stock works too.
How to make the best sweet potato soup recipe
Making this soup from scratch is a very easy process. You’ll only need one pot and a blender (or an immersion blender).
- Sauté the aromatics. Sauté the onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and ginger to create the flavor base of this soup.
- Simmer – Next, add the carrots, sweet potatoes, and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are easily pierced with a fork, about 25 minutes.
- Blend – Once the carrots and sweet potatoes are tender, puree the soup until smooth and creamy. A high-powered blender will do the best job but you could also use an immersion blender and blend your soup right in the pot!
- Garnish – Garnish the soup with your favorite toppings, and serve!
Use Caution When Blending Hot Ingredients! Fill the blender only one-third of the way up, leave the top portion of your blender open for the steam to escape, and cover the opening with a folded kitchen towel while blending.
TOPPINGS & SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Topping ideas: a swirl of coconut cream, toasted pumpkin seeds, a drizzle of tahini, a few spoonfuls of rice, chopped fresh herbs, pomegranate arils, croutons, roasted chickpeas,…all make beautiful and tasty garnishes. If you want a bit more heat in your soup, top it with a good pinch of dried red pepper flakes to spice it up.
Serving Suggestions: I love serving this soup with a batch of warm cloverleaf dinner rolls but it would be also wonderful with:
- Roasted vegetables: try these roasted balsamic Brussels sprouts
- A hearty salad: for a seasonal option, serve this hearty soup with a fall harvest salad
- A sandwich: soup and sandwich it’s a classic combo!
How to Store and Freeze
To store: It will keep in the fridge for 4 to 5 days. If it becomes too thick, loosen it with a touch of water when reheating.
To freeze: This carrot sweet potato soup freezes beautifully. Just let the soup cool, pour it into freezer-safe containers leaving an inch or so on top to allow the soup to expand, and freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, allow it to thaw in the refrigerator or on the kitchen counter, reheat on the stove or in the microwave, and serve.
More Comforting Soup Recipes:
More Easy Sweet Potato Recipes:
How To Make It: Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow or white onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ½ tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1.2 lb (550 g) sweet potatoes peeled and diced
- 0.8 lb (360 g) carrots peeled and chopped
- 4 ¼ cups (1 L) low-sodium vegetable stock plus more if needed
- salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper
Toppings (optional)
- toasted coconut flakes
- roasted pumpkin seeds
- roasted chickpeas
- dried red pepper flakes
- cilantro
Instructions
SAUTÉ
- Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and cook for another 1-2 minutes, or until fragrant.
SIMMER
- Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, and vegetable stock.
- Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes and carrots are fork-tender.
BLEND
- Use an immersion blender to puree the soup in the pot until smooth. You can also carefully transfer the soup to a blender and puree. Taste, and season with salt and black pepper.
SERVE
- Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the toppings.
Notes
- Nutrition facts are for 1 portion of soup without toppings.
- Heat – this soup is not super spicy. If you want your soup to have more of a kick, add a generous pinch of dried red pepper flakes as a topping.
- Blending – a high-powered blender will do the best job. Transfer your soup in batches, and be sure to never fill a blender more than half full with a hot liquid to avoid explosions and burns. You could also use an immersion blender and blend your soup right in the pot!
- Consistency – we love this soup thick; for a thinner consistency, add more stock.
- Storage – this soup will keep in the fridge for 4/5 days. As the soup sits, it will thicken up so you may need to loosen it with a touch of water when reheating.
- Freezer-Friendly – You can easily freeze this soup. Let it cool, then transfer to a suitable container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the fridge overnight, then reheat it on the cooker or in the microwave.
I made this soup for our dinner last night and it was delicious!! My friends said it was the best dish I’ve made yet! Thank you for sharing!
Lovely soup! Absolutely delicious. Will definitely make again.
This soup is wonderful. From it’s color to it’s flavor and you only need just a few ingredients, I love having this in the fall season.
I am such a sucker for sweet potatoes and this soup looks so good to me right now! Loving that orange color and all these toppings!
Yum, I love sweet potatoes and carrots, so combined to make a soup sounds like the perfect Fall comfort meal! And l love all the yummy toppings, especially the roasted chickpeas.
What a beautiful autumn soup. I love that you’ve added ginger and red pepper flakes for a bit of a kick. Your topping ideas are fab too!
I’m in love with the toppings you chose for this! Chickpeas and pumpkin seeds are the perfect way to add some texture! Love it!
I LOVE that the creaminess doesnt come from CREAM!! :)
Delicious! This is such a great fall meal, I love the flavours and the creaminess, plus the crunchies on top bring it all together.
Yum sweet potato and carrot go so well together! A warm, hearty and creamy soup for those cold winter nights… Thank you!
Love a good sweet potato soup and they are so easy to make too. But the best thing about your recipe are the topping ideas. I never put toppings on mine and they are such a great idea. Just to give it that extra little something.
This soup is sooo gorgeous! Such a stunning orange, and all the toppings really make it shine! Delicious flavors, too. I’d love to faceplant into a bowl of this right now, haha!