A Good Blended Vegetable Soup
This blended vegetable soup is a delicious delivery vehicle for a range of hearty vegetables. If you have onions, potatoes, carrots, and broccoli to use up, this is a great option. A soup that is a unfussy as it gets, easily adaptable as well.
This blended vegetable soup often makes an appearance after a trip. Specifically, when we arrive home to a mostly empty refrigerator. Alternately, I tend to cook it if f I’m needing a relatively low-lift, healthful soup that will yield some legit leftovers to be excited about later in the week. Because it’s blended, this soup is creamy without the cream. It’s loaded with a range of veggies and good-for-you ingredients. It uses up all those hearty, unfussy ingredients that tend to last longest around a kitchen - onions, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, etc. The kind that are there to welcome you home.
The Inspiration
We drove back from San Francisco on Sunday, and after a few days of restaurant meals I was craving a simple soup. To be honest, there wasn’t much of an alternative, because there weren’t many fresh ingredients to cook with. There were a few carrots, a few potatoes, and we're never without onions. There was broccoli, but it was not looking its finest. A soup like this is the answer, and an example of why I love cooking. There’s nothing fancy going on here, just a handful of simple ingredients turning into a wonderful nourishing meal with plenty of leftovers. I took the photos you see here after reheating the soup for lunch today. It’s paired with thin slices of toasted homemade sourdough (from the freezer!), and topped with egg salad for a quick lunch up on the patio.
Blended Vegetable Soup: Simple Variations
This soup is the definition of flexible. The whole idea is to use up whatever vegetables you have on hand. Here are a few ways I’ve played around with the base recipe over the years.
- Ginger: add some grated ginger along with the garlic.
- Spicy: make it spicy with your favorite red pepper flakes, to taste.
- Big green: add a couple handfuls of kale or spinach with the broccoli for added green veg boost.
- Make it vegan: swap out the butter for another tablespoon of olive oil.
- Keep it chunky: Skip the blending step, or, blend half and leave half unblended
- Cauliflower version: if you don’t have broccoli, but have cauliflower, go ahead and make the swap.
- No carrots?: Swap in an equivalent amount of sweet potatoes or winter squash.
Can you freeze it?
Yes. Let the soup cool, then place in the freezer for up to a few months. Allow to thaw, then gently reheat in a pot. Or, if you forget to thaw ahead of time. Add a bit of water to your saucepan, place the frozen soup in the saucepan, covered, over gentle heat. Give it a regular stir (or flip) every ten minutes or so until it thaws.
What to Serve with This Soup
Serving a soup like this along with some freshly baked bread is arguably the way to go, but we’ve even gone the left-over reheated pizza on occasion. Other favorite options:
- Frittata Sandwich: Soup and sandwich is a classic combo for good reason.
- Egg Salad Sandwich: I often do an open-faced version of this along with the soup (as pictured) - or if you're feeling a bit more ambitious, try this shredded egg salad.
- This chickpea salad sandwich is also a nice pairing. Get that bread nice and toasty!
- Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread: a favorite along-side blended soups.
- Zucchini Bread: well-toasted and smeared with a herby compound butter
- Six Seed Soda Bread: Seed crusted . Bonus points for adding a compound butter here as well.
- Easy Little Bread: yeast-based, farm-style loaf, made from rolled oats and a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.
- Baked Potatoes: No one will complain.
More Blended Soup Recipes:
Clearly I love a good blended soup - great year-round.
- Simple Cauliflower Soup
- Pumpkin and Rice Soup
- Simple Asparagus Soup
- Simple Carrot Soup
- Thirteen Great Blender Soups
- Zucchini Soup
More Soup Recipes
- Tortellini Soup
- Wild Rice Soup
- Roasted Tomato Soup
- Lively Up Lentil Soup
- Split Pea Soup
- Miso Soup
- Ribollita
- Nine Great Lentil Soups
- All soup recipes
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Blended Vegetable Soup
If you don’t have enough onions, toss in some shallots, scallions, and/or leeks instead. This recipe calls for 5 1/2 cups of vegetable broth, but you can use water with 1 tablespoon bouillon powder (or a couple bouillon cubes) instead. Or, use a carton of a broth you like plus additional water to get you to the correct amount. Just be sure to season well at the end. If your soup tastes so-so to you, keep working on the seasoning and balance. Topping ideas for this soup include chopped pistachios (pictured), chili crisp, and/ or citrus furikake. And to make it vegan, swap out the butter for another tablespoon of olive oil.
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 1/2 medium yellow onions, peeled
- 2-3 medium waxy potatoes
- 5 medium carrots, peeled
- 2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
- 5 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 3 cups broccoli, florets and stems
- juice of a lemon
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Chop the onions, potatoes, and carrots into (roughly) 1-inch pieces.
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Heat the olive oil and butter In a large soup pot over medium-high. Add the onions and salt, stir to coat. Cover and cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until onions soften completely. Add the garlic, and cook for another minute or so. Add the potatoes and carrots along with the broth. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.
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After 5 minutes of simmering add the broccoli and boil another 7-10 minutes or so. You want everything to be tender. I always test the potato and broccoli. Remove from heat.
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Blend the mixture in a high-speed blender (in batches) or using an immersion blender. Be careful, it's hot. If the soup is thicker than you like, add more hot water or broth at this point. The most important step is next. Season the soup well to your liking with more salt, if needed, and the lemon juice. Enjoy!
Serves 4-6.
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