Roast

Miso Charred Carrot Soup

September 17, 2018
3.5
34 Ratings
Photo by Ty Mecham
  • Prep time 25 minutes
  • Cook time 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Serves about 9 cups
Author Notes

An easy-as-heck soup to keep on repeat all fall and winter. Roast root vegetables (in this case, carrots) with celery and onion. Then blend the charred results with water and lots of mellow white miso. That’s it. —Emma Laperruque

Test Kitchen Notes

This is one of our Big Little Recipes. Read more here: Creamy Carrot Soup in 4 Ingredients (Cream Isn't One of Them). —The Editors

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Miso Charred Carrot Soup
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
  • 1 pound celery, chopped into 1-inch chunks
  • 1 pound yellow onions, halved, peeled, and cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 3 tablespoons canola oil, divided
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
  • 1/4 cup mellow white miso, divided
Directions
  1. Heat the oven to 425°F. Line two sheet trays with silicone mats or parchment.
  2. Add the carrots to one tray. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Toss with your hands. Add the celery and onion to another tray. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Toss with your hands.
  3. Stick both trays in the oven and roast for about 1 hour total. Every 20 minutes, rotate the trays and stir vegetables to encourage even cooking.
  4. When the vegetables are done remove both trays from the oven. Add about half of each tray to a blender. Add 2 tablespoons miso and 4 1/2 cups water. Blend until completely smooth, then pour into a large pot on the stove. Repeat with the remaining vegetables, remaining 2 tablespoons miso, and another 4 1/2 cups water—blended until smooth, poured into the pot.
  5. Season the soup with salt, if necessary. Thin with more water, if necessary, depending on how thick you like your soup. Warm over medium-low heat, stirring often, until it’s the temperature you like to eat your soup. Pour into a bowl and serve.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Alexandra Caffee
    Alexandra Caffee
  • Chanel Wilkins
    Chanel Wilkins
  • hmship
    hmship
  • Ann DeLong
    Ann DeLong
  • Kate
    Kate
Emma was the food editor at Food52. She created the award-winning column, Big Little Recipes, and turned it into a cookbook in 2021. These days, she's a senior editor at Bon Appétit, leading digital cooking coverage. Say hello on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.

27 Reviews

theletterc September 23, 2022
used my vitamix 'hot soup' mode and i had none of the texture problems others mentioned. used a little dash of rice wine vinegar and olive oil at the end to balance the flavor and it was absolutely perfect.
 
salena March 23, 2022
No one will guess that this soup has only 6 ingredients plus water. It's rich, very filling, and bursting with flavor. I made it for 2, so I cut all ingredients basically by 4. Used olive oil to mix the veggies on 1 sheet tray. Kept an eye on them and when they had a good char (c. 45 minutes) removed them from the oven and put them into a small soup pot. Added water and miso (Hikari white) and took my Breville immersion blender to it. Didn't take very long to get it to an even, thick soup. Attractive with the flecks of char. Highly recommend this recipe for its simplicity, deliciousness, and certainly for its low-calorie count. Reheats well.
 
Ethyl November 26, 2024
This is pretty much exactly what I did because my blender died :( But it worked great! The carrots did need a little bit of simmering to get totally tender for my stick blender but the flavor was terrific anyway!
 
Brennan H. December 4, 2021
Like others, I had trouble getting this to blend, even with a vitamix. The celery in particular was very fibrous. I might try parboiling the celery before roasting next time, to break down the fibres a bit. The soup did not need much salt if any at all. I did add a pinch of brown sugar for sweetness
 
cosmiccook October 2, 2022
Curious if you got your celery from Trader Joes? I find their brand particularly fibrous. I tend to peel mine to get some of the fiber removed. I've found there are different types of celery out there. I wonder if Celeriac or Celery root & fennel would achieve a similar end product?
 
Alexandra C. October 19, 2020
Love this recipe! Cheap and so flavorful - I will be making this all winter! I read all these comments before starting and I have to say that I think where people are going wrong is the oven time. Use your best judgement and char to your liking. I took mine out at 40 min when my carrots were beginning to char nicely on the sides. I also have a pretty powerful blender, but added my water sort of gradually to increase the friction needed to blend smoothly. The miso I used was low sodium and I think that made a difference, too. Also, it's *very good* the next day.
 
Chanel W. September 27, 2020
I enjoyed this soup but made a few changes. I subbed the celery with leeks, and used chicken stock along with water. Also added some heavy cream. I loved the miso and carrot combination - will be making this again!
 
hmship May 8, 2020
This is delicious. I just made a half recipe. The onions and celery were done after about 50 minutes but I cooked the carrots for a full hour. It's subtle but addictive.
 
Thea November 11, 2019
I think a step is missing. After a 10 minutes at 425, the oven should go down to 375 or the veggies char in 20 minutes.
 
Ann D. November 10, 2019
adjusting for salt at the end is tricky, also added a generous amount of pepper. Used only 8 cups of water. Will probably add sour cream to my soup even tho that makes it non-vegan.
 
Berk O. November 10, 2019
You can use vegan sour cream. Perfectly fine...
 
Kate November 10, 2019
I was hoping to like this but, no. Some of the veggies burnt a little when roasting and I tossed them in anyway--wrong-- they lended a burnt flavor. And as someone else noted, it was hard to puree the veggies, I tried both a bur mixer and food processor and still had mini veggie chunks.
 
Licole P. January 30, 2019
Loved the flavor, but it's hard to get everything pureed smoothly when you're intentionally burning the outside of the veggies (I used a ninja blender, which is pretty strong). Worked much better for me when I pureed the veggies with much less water to get them a bit smoother, then added the water incrementally. I'll be trying it with broccoli instead of carrots soon!
 
flutephobia October 11, 2018
I really wanted to like this. I used my blender, then added more water once it was in the pot, because it was still pretty chunky. Then the soup was diluted. So I added more miso, then blended it even longer with my hand blender. Still way too chunky for a double blended soup. And now I have so much soup; I have soup for all of autumn. I think one needs a vitamix for this. everything about this screamed easy and delicious, but for me it was more effort than payoff.
 
tupperbear October 12, 2018
I made & w/Vitamix it was a breeze. Definitely a keeper.
 
Don October 11, 2018
Very disappointing, but it may have been too strong miso.
 
Berk O. October 7, 2018
Not bad. Seeing that it has miso, therefore an Asian twist, I added some shichimi togarashi for a kick. With added salt, came together. I also reduced the water to 8 cups for a thicker soup...
 
Wade October 1, 2018
I just made this. Good flavour and sooo easy! Only thing was my soup has little fibrous strands in it (celery?) Did I not blend it well enough? I only have a hand blender.
 
Emma L. October 2, 2018
Glad you liked it, Wade! Sounds like the hand blender might not have been strong enough. If you make the recipe again, you could: 1) peel away the tougher, fibrous outer layer of the celery before chopping and/or 2) chop the celery smaller before roasting, then adjust the cook time accordingly.
 
nancy September 26, 2018
nutritional data, please?
 
Suzanne M. October 18, 2020
I think this site doesn't really do that, usually. Try my fitness pal
 
witloof September 25, 2018
I have to make dinner for a new mom who is a vegetarian and allergic to dairy, and this looks great!
 
BoyMomma September 25, 2018
Did you say what your favorite brand of white miso is? Did I miss it?
 
witloof September 25, 2018
Click the hyperlink.
 
Linda K. October 5, 2018
Try http://www.southrivermiso.com/
 
andrea October 5, 2018
What brand of miso did you use? I don't see a hpyerlink
 
Emma L. October 5, 2018
Hi! This is the brand I use: https://great-eastern-sun.com/shop/miso-master-miso/miso-master-organic-mellow-white-miso/