Spicy Sweet Potato Carrot Soup, a simple chipotle-spiced yam and carrot soup made with chipotle, cumin, and paprika. Made in the Instant Pot or stovetop, this one-pot plant-based soup is perfect for fall!
In a season when pumpkin has completely taken over every latte, smoothie, and soup, sometimes fall calls for something a little different. Something spicy with a bit of sweetness — like this spicy soup made with sweet potatoes and carrots!
The natural sweetness of root vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots lends perfectly to the strong spice of chipotle, paprika, and cumin. Add a bit of ginger and garlic and a touch of maple syrup, and this vegan one-pot soup is the perfect choice when you’re tired of pumpkin in every dish this autumn.
👉 Ready to learn how to make this plant-based, gluten-free, 30-minute carrot potato soup? Let’s do it!
🍠 Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes + carrots: Sweet potatoes and carrots are the base of this creamy soup and blend well together to create a slightly sweet, yet earthy taste
- Onion + garlic + ginger: The flavor boosters of this soup, onions, garlic, and ginger round out the sweetness of the potatoes and carrots for a deeper, more robust flavor.
- Spices: Cumin, chipotle powder, and paprika lend a flavor boost, while salt seasonings the soup.
- A touch of sweetener: We’re adding a small amount of maple syrup to round out the strong spices; agave syrup works as well.
- Broth: Vegetable broth adds liquid to the vegetables, for easy blending for a smoother soup
- Optional garnishes: crushed pumpkin or sunflower seeds, cilantro, coconut cream, sprinkled chile powder
- Recommended tools: Instant Pot or pressure cooker, handheld immersion blender
🥣 How to make (step-by-step photos)
The following instructions are for the pressure cooker, but instructions for both Instant Pot and stove top are in the recipe card below.
1️⃣ Step One: Cook onions + garlic + ginger
The first step to make this Spicy Sweet Potato Carrot Soup in the Instant Pot is to saute the onion in olive oil on the saute setting until the onion begins to soften, or about 3 minutes. Next stir in minced garlic and ginger until they release their aromatics, or about 1 minute.
2️⃣ Step Two: Add sweet potatoes + carrots + seasonings
Once the onion, garlic, and ginger are fragrant, add the cut sweet potato and carrots. Then add the spices — cumin, chipotle powder, and paprika — as well as a bit of maple syrup to soften the strong spice flavors, and stir well to combine.
Start with a small amount of chipotle powder — you can always add more later! When testing this recipe I added way too much chipotle powder to start and the soup was inedible because of the spice. If you love spicy food (like us!), you can always add more later.
3️⃣ Step Three: Add broth + cook soup
Pour in the vegetable broth (do you make your own broth using vegetable scraps?) and a pinch of salt, and then cover the pressure cooker with the lid and cook on the high pressure soup setting for 20 minutes.
Be mindful of the ratio of liquid broth to vegetables if you’re using a pressure cooker: My main gripe when I first began cooking blended soups in an Instant Pot is that I never could get the broth to vegetable ratio right, so I either had a soup that was too thick or too thin. It’s much easier to salvage a too thick soup than a too thin soup, so my suggestion is to start with 6 cups of broth and then add more afterward if needed to make a soup thinner.
4️⃣ Step Four: Blend + serve
When the soup is done, remove the lid carefully after releasing the pressure and blend the soup with an immersion blender until it is completely smooth. Serve the soup with your choice of garnishes — we love crispy roasted pumpkin seeds, homemade croutons (use up leftover bread!), a bit of cilantro, and a drizzle of maple syrup or coconut cream.
🧊 How to store
This carrot and sweet potato soup is great reheated, and even freezes well! Here’s how to store and serve:
- Refrigerator storage: Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- Freezer storage: Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months. To thaw, simply take the soup out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator 24 hours before you want to reheat and serve.
♻️ Sustainable kitchen tips
We’re all about going green in the kitchen here at Fork in the Road, so here are some ways we make this soup sustainabl
Eat seasonal. The best time to make this soup is when both carrots and sweet potatoes are in season, which is typically in early to mid-fall.
Make your own vegetable broth. Want to reduce food packaging, food waste, AND save money during soup season? Make your own vegetable broth using the vegetable scraps you would normally throw away each week.
Make once, eat twice (or three times). Make a big batch of this soup and store to reheat for later to reduce cooking time (your future self will thank you).
🍲 More savory soup recipes
Want more cozy cold-weather soup recipes? We’ve got you covered:
- Creamy Vegan Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
- White Bean Kale Quinoa Soup
- Spicy Butternut Squash Chili
- Instant Pot Pumpkin Sage Soup
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Spicy Sweet Potato Carrot Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 whole garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 5 medium sweet potatoes, cut into small cubes
- 1 pound carrots, cut into small cubes
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup, or agave nectar
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- Optional garnish: crushed pumpkin or sunflower seeds, cilantro, coconut cream, sprinkled chile powder
Instructions
Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker Recipe Instructions
- Cook onion + garlic: Set Instant Pot to saute and allow to come to medium heat. Add olive oil and onion and cook until onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, cooking 1 minute more or until very fragrant.
- Add ingredients + cook 20 minutes: Add sweet potato, carrots, cumin, chipotle powder, paprika, and maple syrup and stir well to combine all ingredients. Add vegetable broth and salt, secure Instant Pot with lid, and cook on high pressure soup setting for 20 minutes.
- Blend + serve: When soup is done, manually release the Instant Pot pressure, taking care to only remove lid when all pressure is released. Stir the soup to combine, then blend with an immersion blender until the soup is completely smooth. Serve with your choice of garnishes.
Stovetop Recipe Instructions
- Cook onion + garlic: To a large soup pot over medium heat, add olive oil and onion and cook until onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, cooking 1 minute more or until very fragrant.
- Add ingredients: Add sweet potato, carrots, cumin, chipotle powder, paprika, maple syrup, vegetable broth, and salt and stir well to combine all ingredients.
- Simmer soup: Increase heat and bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Blend + serve: When soup is done simmering, blend with an immersion blender until the soup is completely smooth. Serve with your choice of garnishes.
Recipe Notes
- *Recipe Notes: If soup is too thick after cooking and blending, add a bit more vegetable broth until desired consistency.
- Tools Needed: Instant Pot or large soup pot, immersion blender, kitchen knife set
- Prep ahead: soup can be made up to four days ahead of time if not frozen, months ahead of time if frozen and reheated (see freezing instructions below)
- Leftovers + storage: store soup in a pot or glass storage containers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days; freeze in freezer-safe storage containers for up to two months (possibly longer, however we did not test longer than 8 weeks). To reheat, thaw soup and bring to a boil in a soup pot. Do not thaw frozen soup and then refreeze.
- Nutrition notes: This soup is completely plant-based and gluten-free. Nutrition information is calculated on ⅙ of the recipe, which is about a 12 ounce bowl. This sweet potato and carrot soup is high in fiber, vitamin A, and provides 4 grams of plant-based protein per serving.
Nutrition Information
UPDATE: This recipe was originally published in November 2019 and updated for clarity in October 2021.
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