Mushroom, carrot and sweet potato soup

This mushroom, carrot and sweet potato soup is wonderfully smooth, warming and delicious. Quick and easy to make, and perfect for a cold day, it's a flavorful bowl of goodness.

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During colder weather, there's nothing quite like a bowl of soup to warm you up. It's something I very much grew up with, and while I maybe don't make them quite as often now, I do go through phases and enjoy when I do.

Some soups I make based on a traditional, tried and tested recipe, like cullen skink (smoked haddock chowder) or avgolemono (lemon chicken soup with orzo/rice). But other times I wing it. And if I'm lucky, I keep track of what I add so that I can make the same combination again. This is one such soup - I had a vague idea when I first made it, but it turned out so tasty, I've made it a good few times since.

Combining colors, textures and flavors

My thought when I first made this soup was to try to get a bit of the best out of a few favorite vegetables. Mushrooms and carrots both work well for soups in their own right (like my wild mushroom soup), and sweet potato makes a wonderfully smooth puree. While they are all great vegetables individually, they also each add something to this soup to give a lovely balance of earthy, sweet and smooth.

Plus, color-wise, combining them makes for an appealing bowlful, too. While mushroom soup is tasty, let's be honest the color doesn't necessarily draw you in. But blended with the other brighter vegetables, it's a much sunnier picture.

The blend of vegetables, along with a gentle warm spice, gives a soup that has a lovely depth. It won over even my more vegetable-hesitant child, and the rest of us enjoyed it, too.

Ingredients and substitutions

This soup uses a relatively short list of ingredients. While it includes dairy and gluten as written, you can easily substitute to make it dairy and gluten free. And with vegetable stock its then also vegetarian/vegan as well.

• Onion - this is a classic base aromatic and helps build flavor, especially when softened to bring out the natural sweetness, as you do here.
• Carrot - this adds color, lots of bright flavor and a natural sweetness.
• Sweet potato - another great vegetable that adds sweetness and flavor, but also it helps create a fantastically smooth texture once you blend the soup.
• Mushrooms - these add a lovely earthy depth of flavor, and balance out the other sweeter vegetables. I like to use crimini (baby bella) as they have a little more flavor, but white mushrooms, and others, work fine as well.
• Stock - this is your main liquid which thins it out and adds a little flavor. You can use vegetable or chicken stock as you have/prefer. Homemade is best if you can, otherwise store-bough chicken or vegetable broth is fine. I recommend choosing a lower sodium one.
• Cumin and coriander - these spices add a lovely warmth and depth of flavor.
• Butter - you need a little fat to cook the vegetables in as butter works well as it adds a little flavor. However you can also use olive oil to make it dairy free/vegan.
• Flour - a little helps absorb any excess flat, and it also thickens the soup. If you want to make it gluten-free, you can substitute with cornstarch (corn flour) or potato starch.
• Milk - a little added at the end helps up the creamy smoothness of the soup. You can substitute with a dairy-free milk (my top choice would be coconut milk) or add cream instead if you want an even richer soup.

While I really like the combination here, you can also switch in some other similar root vegetables, like butternut squash or parsnips, as you have. The spices are adaptable too - things like ginger and/or paprika would also pair well. Think of this as a base, then experiment away!

Making stovetop soup

Some soups I find you get the best flavor by roasting the vegetables, but many work well to do it all on the stove, and this is one of them. The trick is to start by sweating the vegetables - first the onion, then adding the others as well.

This process simply means cooking at a relatively low heat so that the vegetables start to release some of their moisture which brings out their sweetness and flavor, but without browning (or at least not much). It's a great way to make everything in one pot but still with plenty flavor, especially once you add the spices.

When you add the spices, cook them briefly to take away any raw flavor they may have before adding the liquid. Then let it all simmer away to cook the vegetables through. Then blend, add the milk and enjoy.

Making ahead and storing

This soup is great for making ahead and storing in the fridge for a day or two, or freezing for longer storage. I'd recommend reheating on the stove to be more even, but in the microwave would also work.

To me, comforting soups are just the thing for chilly weather, whether blended ones like this, chestnut soup and navy bean soup or chunkier ones like harira. And using ingredients that you likely have hanging around the fridge is even better.

So, have a dig in the back of your cupboard and refrigerator and see if you have the ingredients to make this mushroom, carrot and sweet potato soup. It won't take you long to make and even less time to enjoy it's comforting, flavorful goodness.

Looking for more comforting soups? Try these!

• Butternut squash soup with apple, sage and thyme
• Brussel sprout soup with crispy bacon and chestnut
• Peruvian shrimp chowder, chupe de camarones
• Sopa de ajo (Spanish garlic soup)
• Plus get more winter recipes in the archives.

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store. 

This recipe was first shared in January 2015 and has been updated, primarily with new photos and some additional information/tips.

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