Roasted carrot, chickpea and garlic soup, 26p (VEGAN)
A soup that’s like a great big comforting hug… Yes please.
I woke up this morning craving a carrot soup – it’s all rock and roll round here these days. I’m a bit snuffly around the edges at the moment, sore throat and generally feeling a bit sorry for myself, and still limping around tragically on a still-broken left foot. This may be the most self-pitying recipe introduction to date. But basically, I fancied something warm, and sweet, and comforting, and easy to do. Something I could fling in the oven and forget about, and get something good inside. Carrot led to roast carrot, and garlic, and some chickpeas for protein and good measure – and the result is a subtly spiced, hearty, sweet and delicious soup. It’s like the soup equivalent of a cuddle, this one. And suitable for all my lovely vegan readers, too. Hurrah.
Serves 4 at 26p each:
300g carrots (approx 3 medium ones), 17p
240g tinned chickpeas (that’s the drained and rinsed weight of a 400g can), 60p
4 fat cloves of garlic, 7p
2 tbsp oil (vegetable or sunflower), 4p
150g onion (one small one or half a large one), 9p
1/2 tsp cumin (1.3g), 3p
a pinch of dried chilli flakes, 2p
800ml weak vegetable stock (1/2 stock cube will do), 1p
First heat your oven to 180C. Wash your carrots and slice thickly, and toss into a roasting tin. Drain and thoroughly rinse your chickpeas and add to the tin, with the whole garlic cloves. Pour over the oil and give it all a shuffley-shake to lightly coat it, and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel and finely slice your onion, and set to one side. When your first 20 minutes is up, remove the roasting tin from the oven, scatter the onion over, and the cumin and chilli, and give it all another shake. Cook for a further 20 minutes, until it looks like this:
Yummy roasty goodness. And yes I leave the tops on my carrots – waste not want not!
Remove the garlic cloves from the roasting tin, and tip the rest of the contents into a blender – keeping some chickpeas aside to garnish if you like that sort of thing. Squeeze in the soft garlic (don’t put the skins in the blender, they end up like tiny bits of wet tissue that stick to the roof of your mouth. We learn from our errors, round here, and pass the wisdom on – though in my defence that was many years ago…). Add the stock and blend until smooth.
Remove from the blender and warm through, garnishing with reserved chickpeas to serve.
*Prices are worked out at Sainsburys because that’s where I currently shop, but things like carrots and onions are widely sold in many other places for similar prices. If you happen to find them ludicrously cheaper, please comment below as I’m sure my readers would love to know where the bargains are. Prices are also subject to change but are correct at the time of blogging. I worked them out like this:
Basics carrots 85p/1.5kg. 400g tin of chickpeas 60p. Basics garlic 35p/2 bulbs. Sunflower oil £4/3l. Basics onions 95p/1.5kg. Ground cumin £1/42g. Dried crushed chilli flakes £1/32g. Basics vegetable stock cubes 25p/10 cubes.
Jack Monroe. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @MxJackMonroe
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East end chick peas are currently 4 for £1 at Tesco. I’ve never tried them though! Great recipe, I’m definitely trying this one. Thanks Jack x
Wow, chick peas are dear in the Smoke, they are 39p a tin everywhere in the grim old North!
Carrots available in Lidl today st 49p for 1kg
In our Sainsbury’s (Rayleigh) they also have cheaper tins of chickpeas for 40p in the world foods aisle
I haven’t seen any bargainous vegetables lately, but I noticed in poundstretcher they have 500ml bottles of vegetable oil for 49p, which I think is quite a good price, better than I’ve seen in Tesco anyway! They have other bits and bobs for 49p (mostly convenience foods), including 2 tins of tomatoes for 49p.
Almost forgot, 4 tins of chickpeas for £1 in Tesco (in the speciality foods bit) at the moment!
They are called East End Chick peas & are my favourite!
Literally cannot wait to make a bath. Looks really delicious.
Hi Jack,
I would give you a BIG HUG if I could! I have all those ingredients so will have a go at making it tomorrow yum…xx
This looks and sounds yummy. Checked the cupboards and have all the ingredients. Let the roasting begin 😊👍
This might be a stupid question, but would it also work if you tipped the roast veg into a pan, added the stock and then used a stick blender, as I’ve not got a jug blender? It looks delicious! I also like roasting vegetables when I don’t fancy standing over a hot pan.
Yes! It would work but needs some welly to break down the roast chickpeas!
I made this today and we loved it and will make it again. The chickpeas were mostly like bullets so it was slightly ‘gritty’ when first made.This didn’t put us off and was not noticeable when reheated at mealtime possibly because we had crispy bacon sandwiches with it.
I am trying to get used to an electric fan oven after using gas for 40 years I wonder if 180 was a little high.I will try lower next time.
We have only eaten half of the soup.We are thinking Garlic Bread with it tomorrow.
Keep up the good work.You are a geniuss
I’d suggest just gently dry frying them instead. You’d still get a slightly roasted taste but they would be less tough to blend.
Yes Anne! This is exactly what I did…just poured the roasted beg into a big bowl with the hot stock and blended with my stick blender 🙂
Yes, I used a stick blender & could not get a smooth texture. I think I would forgo the roasting of the chick peas if I made it again, but the carrots are lovely roast.
Great recipe I’m going to try it tomorrow thank you
Sounds yummy, Jack.
Sorry you aren’t feeling well.
I am SO making this tomorrow! x
I just worked out the calorie content of your soup on myfitnesspal and it has 307 calories per portion
Oops I just noticed I made a mistake with this calorie calculation and it should be 189 calories per serving (approximately).
Am going to give this a try over the Weekend, sounds Lush.
great looking recipe!! ..oven temp??
180C!
so sorry! I’ve just noticed the oven temp
Thank you for the fab vegan record, keep them coming! Xx
*recipes*
You’re a girl after my own heart, Jack.
Chickpeas are 3 tins, or even 4 tins, for £1 in Indian shops. Look around and stock up when you find them cheap. TBH I’ve even seen them 3 (may have been 4) for £1 in my local (very large, with specialist Indian department) Sainsburys………….
Sounds lovely. I’ve never paid that much for tinned chickpeas though. Morrisons, Lidl or Aldi all do better, or your local Asian shop.
I’m drooling.
Yum, Jack.
Sorry to hear about your incapacitated state. But glad to hear nothing could stop you from getting to the cooker!
Here in Oz I’ve been suffering from a virus, which meant I couldn’t get out to buy carrots, however I did have some rather sad parsnips in the fridge and some potatoes. I’d made potato and parsnip curry soup before but hadn’t tried roasting the vegies before mashing them. What a difference! The flavour is lovely.
I had – 6 sad parsnips (equivalent to 3 perky carrots, I thought)
1 med onion
3 chat potatoes
6 cloves of garlic – to ward off the virus
A teaspoon of ground cumin seeds and a puff of hot paprika
It was gorgeous 🙂 Thanks very much for the recipe and ideas.
Hope you get better soon,
all the best,
Julie
I’ve also been in the doldrums this past week – must be something in the air. This soup sounds like a good remedy. Cheers!
Reblogged this on Mommy Emu and commented:
There is nothing like a homemade soup to warm the cockles while it’s freezing cold outside.
Reblogged this on .
Sounds perfect to put in while doing a roast on a sunds, then keeping for Monday’s lunch…
If you get your chickpeas from the world food section they are 3 tins for £1 in sainsburys. Love your blog and have both of your books Jack x
This sounds amaaaazing – perfect for my student budget! Is it freezable?
Yes!
This recipe and a vegetarian version of the creamy mustard chicken are on my meal plan for this week 🙂 Carrots and chickpeas are regular additions on the shopping list (KTC’s kala chana are my fave kind of chickpeas, smaller and darker than others with a nuttier flavour) and so shan’t make a dent in the spend! I’ll be using RealEat ‘chicken style’ pieces with sweet potato, spinach and parsnip for the veggies – pairing it as you did with rice.
Super recipe!
Although it does mean you’ve got the oven on for 40 minutes. Which can be quite costly.
Could roast the veg when you’ve got the oven on for something else one day and then eat the soup the next day, but that means more planning.
Did you use cumin seeds or ground cumin? My carrots and chickpeas are already roasting and realised I had forgotten to ask!
Either would work, i tend to buy ground cumin as you get a few more grams for your buck and it’s more versatile.
Going to make this and add celeriac 🙂
Didn’t have a tin of chickpeas in but had a bag of cannellini beans i had cooked in the freezer.
Looks and tastes lovely, thank you Jack
perfect time to come across this as we have a load of carrots left over that we havent juiced, and it looks great. going to have a go this weekend!
I am making this now and it smells gorgeous!! Can’t wait to taste it 🙂 x
A great recipe if you are on a calorie counting diet, like me, as it is so filling and tasty.
The thing I love most about your recipes is usually I have everything that’s needed for them. Or, the only thing I’d need to get is one ingredient (in this case, three carrots.) It’s so comforting.
Gorgeous soup, just finished eating two bowls! The chickpeas went a bit crunchy, adding an almost nutty tone to the flavours, absolutely delicious recipe, bravo.
Just made this and what can I say? It is delicious. I used a teaspoon of coconut oil (it was in the cupboard) instead of vegetable oil but I predict this will become a firm favourite in our house!
Watch out in Aldi for their ‘Super 6’ fruit and veg offers.
Just made this soup. It was delicious. Really earthy tasting and creamy. I’m going to make another batch tomorrow to take to work for lunch next week. Love your recipes Jack x
Sounds good but please use a heavier oil like olive, coconut or mustard as cooking with sunflower or vegetable oil can cause heart attacks in susceptible people. There’s quite a bit on the Web about this. The rest of it sounds great and I am looking forward to making this really soon. Thanks very much.
“sunflower or vegetable oil can cause heart attacks in susceptible people” – er… I would be interested to see the research behind this theory, I certainly can’t find any reputable source online supporting it.
Sounds absolutely delicious. I love chick peas but sometimes get bored of chick pea pilaf, hummus and chick pea curry – can’t wait to try this!
I buy all my veg and chickpeas in Aldi. Great prices. I also always coconut oil. I buy it from Amazon as it is much cheaper than the supermarkets. I love it and a little goes a long way.
This is so delicious and so easy I can cook it! Keep up the amazing work..you’re my kind of cook.
You can find cheap, huge 4k bags of brown and red onions for £1.59 at your green grocers and asda if you don’t mind smaller onions. Also, if you buy the 2.5k chickpeas in in the ethnic section of your grocery store it’s a good deal at £2.99. Just soak 1 cup in a slow cooker overnight and then add all the other ingredients and you’ll have the same great soup without being stuck at the hob. Dried beans if cooked on their own can be frozen afterwards and used in multiple recipes.
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This is what I’m having for dinner tonight, sounds lovely! I do my shopping at Aldi mostly, and their tins of chickpeas are 39p. Veg is usually really good value as well 🙂
I made this on Friday, it was so delicious I made it on saturday, I just roasted it for a bit longer the second time and added a parsnip. Lovely
This smells absolutely delicious, Jack, and so fortuitous – i’m flat broke, but a friend of mine posted it on my Facebook page today, and i just happened to have two carrots, half a garlic and a can of chickpeas in the flat – all i needed to get was the onion, and they had a deal on in lidls, bag of onions for 32p, 65p for a bag of carrots – so i had change from the quid i tipped out my piggybank! Looking forward to eating it – thanks! X x x
I made this this morning during the Australian Open Final. It was delicious and almost comforting enough to recover from Andy Murray’s defeat. I roasted the vegetables and then put it in my soup maker with the stock and let that do the rest. I will make this again.
Thanks Jack! Another awesome I could make with whats leftover in my cupboard before I go shopping! Your a lifesaver on a day when cooking and shopping felt like too much! Although mine looks nothing likes yours (I dont follow instructions well) still delish! 😀
I just made this and oh my God it’s the best soup I have ever made, my number one for sure. The only change I made was to use coconut oil instead of veg or sunflower oil. Thanks so much for the recipe
Sounds great. Could I make this in a slow cooker? For me, the electricity is a little cheaper than my inefficient gas oven.
Yes!
Delicious recipe, thank you !!! I tried it the other night with cannellini beans instead of chickpeas ( I didn’t have them at home) and the result was absolutly fantastic, we loved it 🙂
Really delicious – one of your best. I used up some sad carrots and half a butternut squash. Really recommended.
Unfortunately my oven wasn’t capable of cooking the carrots enough on that heat, so I had to boil the soup for another 20 mins to make it edible, but it’s delicious now. Oven on higher and cut up the carrots more next time!
Just made this soup , didn’t change a thing and it’s delicious. Had all the ingredients at home and so quick to make. Just what you need on a very cold day. Thank you!
160C in a fan oven. Sadly the chickpeas went crunchy for me too after 40 mins cooking so next time I may start with just the carrots (or sweet potato) and add the chickpeas (and garlic cloves as I know my oven burns them in 40 minutes) after 10 minutes. Also I would add more cumin and chilli.
This sounds delicious! May have to try this tomorrow.
I’m cooking this as I speak 😊 I hope it turns out as good as you’re looks!!! Thanks for the fab recipe! Xx Kimberley
I’m not vegan, but I am a vegetarian…so I adore these kind of recipes. I really do appreciate you posting these. I read recently that the amount of space it takes for the farming of grain and food to feed animals to be eaten as part of the food chain, could lead to a lack of food by 2050 due to the growth in population. It’s more efficient just to eat the grain and veg than it is to use this space to feed animals to then eat. So it’s recommended that meat eaters try to limit their diet to just two meat portions a week.
Obviously I’m entirely veggie anyway so this doesn’t affect me…but my son and partner do eat veggie most of the time and just treat themselves to a meat dish a few times a week. So I think that anybody (meat eaters or not) can benefit from a good veggie meal. Aside from that, it is so much cheaper to cook veggie too!
Made this, was yum! I only blended a few of the chickpeas into the soup and added the rest in whole as I’m not a massive fan of pureed smooth soups, I’ll definitely make it again 🙂
In a number of local green grocers, we can buy a huge sack of “pony” carrots for £2. Nothing wrong with them other than their size or shape. You could share a sack with a few families and they work out at pence a kilo.
just made this soup with some differences: I also added a parsnip, a sweet potato, a chalk of celery and – because I like it hot – some ginger. I did not have any chick peas, so I put in a tin of red beans. Delicious! The roasting is an excellent idea, it gives the soup a nutty taste. Thanks!
Love how people add/change so many different things to Jack’s recipes and make them their own – this sounds hardly anything like the original, but you’ve obv taken inspiration from reading it and done your own thing! It’s so good. (I’m not v creative so sometimes get a bit panicked if I can’t follow ingredients exactly, but I’m trying to be less rigid!) This sounds lush, Jack, so I’ll give it a go – following exactly or amending a bit if I need to 😉 Lots of love x x
Made this for lunch yesterday (though it only really served 2).
Absolutely delicious!!! So much so I made a double batch last night ready for today and tomorrow!!!!
Thanks for the calorie count – useful. This was so easy to make, it’s just cheered my mum up who is very ill. I didn’t have chilli flakes or cumin, so sprinkled some cinamon over the veg. The results were pleasantly surprising. About to share with my friends.
I lobbed in an additional 300g of parnips into the roasting process, cos that’s what I had left in the fridge. Tastes great…thanks.
I made this for dinner last night. It was delicious although I don’t have a blender so I just mashed up the chickpeas and carrots a bit with a potato masher. O well. The only thing is that I don’t think this will feed me 4 times – I would get 2 dinners or 3 lunches from it, but perhaps my portion sizes are larger than average. Still a very affordable and cheap recipe which I will be making again. Thanks for sharing!
Great for a Meat free Monday dinner!
I am going to try this in my Actifry as I often roast veggies in it.
I see someone mentioned the offer on chickpeas in Tesco. The offer has been on for a long time and also includes a specific brand of tomatoes & chopped tomatoes. So you can mix it up and get 4 tins of any combo of those for £1.
Great soup, thanks
If, for example, you happened to be allergic to cumin and chilli… are there any herbs/spices you would recommend?
Caraway, cinnamon, nutmeg (or mace), coriander seeds, paprika…
This is delicious, have just made for the second time. The chickpeas make it taste really creamy, I wouldn’t have thought of roasting them, but made a real difference. Thank you!
Geat recipe. My 17 year old loved this after a busy day at college and arriving home late. Said it was nice to have some proper food after snacking on rubbish food all day. Hopefully she will add this to her recipe collection when she makes it to university.
This is absolutely top notch soup! Thank you sooooo much 🙂
This is an instant winner in my household, though I am a bit more heavy handed with the cumin which brings it up a notch for me. Also much less stock.
I LOVE this recipe so much that I make it almost every week. sometimes i don’t even manage to make soup with it, as i end up eating the roast veg etc in a pitta bread or wrap or just straight out of the roasting tray. one of my all time favourite recipes and my 4 year old daughter loves it too. Thanks Jack X
I was so very disappointed with this recipe 😦
As the tin was roasting away it smelled delicious, and it looked delicious, but when it came to tasting it was so bland and with a likeness to mushy peas (of all things!)
I popped in a good dose more of spices (extra cumin and chilli flakes, garlic and onion powders, turmeric, black pepper and salt) totalling about an extra tbsp of spices and it was much better.
The texture of a comforting, hearty soup is there but it just had no real flavour.
Lush soup though vegetables definitely needed seasoning – soup would have been really bland without salt and pepper. I also added in more garlic cloves as I love garlic, and shredded a little ham hock into the finished version 🙂
Tinned foods are much cheaper in the World Food section of Tesco. Look for East End products @ 25p per tin.
I made this yesterday. Excellent soup!
Jx
I tried making this recently and while it tastes lovely, it has turned out kind of grainy. Is it supposed to be like that or have I over-roasted my chickpeas/not blended them enough?
Gx
Mine was grainy as well. But my chickpeas wasn’t from can so I though that I didn’t boil it enough…
This is delicious, thank you!
I just made a variation of this, and it was HEAVENLY. Last week I roasted veg (potatoes, carrots and beets) coated in a puree of parsley, onions, garlic, spices and oil. It was looking kinda sad a week later, but I shoved that in a blender with water, chick peas, half a soup cube and OMG it’s divine. I can’t thank you enough for this blog. Great ideas. I hate wasting leftovers.
This was a favorite in our house last fall and I cooked this again tonight. Just like I remembered it: a big warm hug in a bowl. I very much admire and appreciate what you do, Jack!
just made this, its gorgeous, i peeled the garlic and then read the recipe, i put about 6 cloves in as a few were so small, and used cumin seed as i had no ground cumin, and also a 1/4 tsp mild chili. i used a stick blender and it worked fine (chick peas do take a while to blend) perfect soup, the roast garlic makes it extra special
I am so excited to try this out for lunch. I read the recipe and within 10 minutes had everything started roasting in the oven. This will be my first try of carrot soup.
That’s 536 words, which I reduced to 41 before I saved.
Am a happy vegan – weather has turned cold again and am definitely making this tomorrow!!
I enjoyed this (as did the dog!) but had to add a little seasoning to mine. May experiment with other veggies as I love soup in many forms.
Thank you for this 🙂
You can get chickpeas for about 35p in lidl or in the ethnic aisle of Asda or Morrisons (KTC brand).
Oh my goodness that sounds delicious, simple and nutritious – thank you, I’ll be trying this soon!
I think I’m going to add Gram flour to replace roasting all the chickpeas… for substance and flavour… and then scatter some whole chickpeas into the finished soup…
I just made this, and it is delicious, and very filling! I’ve never made a blended soup before, and this one is definitely a keeper!
Thank you so much, Jack, for sharing these wonderful recipes with us,
Mary-Cat, a devoted follower from Delaware, in the US. 🙂
I like soup but also I liked how baked chickpeas and carrot looked and smelled so I though it might be salad as well. I am planing to check that theory tomorrow. Thank you for inspiration!
Would you use any seasoning Jack ? My mum said it needed some 🤔
Hi Jack, recipes looks great! Will give it a go tonight.
Just thought you might like to know the link to your book doesn’t seem to be right.
Good god Jack, I love this soup so much. It makes my whole house smell amazing, and the kitchen at work when I heat it up in the microwave. And obviously it’s so tasty.
Your cookbook and blog has saved me so much money – I don’t have to worry so much about rent day. I’m also almost a full time vegetarian now, thanks in part to your delicious meals. I used to think cooking meant having loads of expensive ingredients, and would get down doing the food shop knowing I couldn’t afford to cook the meals
I wanted to, but you have actually changed my entire mindset. You get a hard time on Twitter but I hope this positive comment makes a little bit of difference. Thank you Jack!