Stop throwing away carrot tops. And simply prepare a soup with them, it’s delicious, healthy and zero waste.
Zero waste and good for your health
You don’t like to waste food? You like to try different vegetables? Or you like the taste of carrot tops? Anyway, if you find carrots with lovely fresh tops, don’t throw them away. At French markets, we are often asked if tops shall be cut off. Next time, the answer will be: “No way, I will cook them!”
Carrot tops are rich in fibers and antioxidants. However, it’s important to buy organic carrots.
How to cook carrot top
There are many ways to cook carrot tops: in soup as here but also in quiches or potato pancakes, omelets, or even raw by preparing pesto for example. If you’re interested in an original pesto recipe that changes from the classic basil pesto, you can see my watercress pesto recipe or adapt it with a carrot top. Use them in vegetarian or vegan dishes too.
Information this carrot top soup recipe
I choose here to prepare a recipe as simple as possible as I wanted to fully enjoy the flavors of carrot tops. And also because it’s very quick to prepare.
According to your tastes or to the products you have, you can opt for many adaptations:
- Replace potatoes with peeled zucchini (they thicken a little bit the soup without having starch) This is something I often do when zucchini is in season and I don’t want a too rich soup. See for example my watercress and zucchini soup.
- Add spices such as turmeric and cumin (preferably at the end of the cooking process in order to preserve their flavors) or grated fresh ginger.
- You can add some of the carrots that were at the end of tops or even an apple or a pear.
- Finally, you can replace crème fraîche with fresh cheese such as goat cheese for example.
I know, that make a lot of different possibilities, but that’s what I like with soups: you can choose fresh vegetables and elaborate all kind of different soups with few ingredients. On top of this, it won’t be very time-consuming or expensive. And it’s so healthy and comforting when it’s cold outside.
Carrot Top Soup
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 large bunch carrot tops or 2 if they are small. Organic
- 2 onions
- 400 gr potato or zucchini
- 1 liter broth vegetable broth or use “bouillon cube”
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt
- pepper freshly ground
Topping
- cream and/or olive oil
Instructions
Start by preparing all ingredients.
- The longest is to wash carrot tops and cut off springs. Only keep nice and fresh leaves. Feel free to remove those that are a bit wilted or turning yellow. It is not necessary to chop carrot tops. Peel and slice onion. Peel and cut into pieces the potatoes. Finally prepare the broth.
Cook the soup
- Heat olive oil at medium heat in a saucepan. Throw in onions, salt and sauté until onions are translucent. T
- Then add potatoes. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
- Then add carrot tops. Stir for a few minutes. Once carrot tops have started to “melt” a bit, add broth. Add salt and pepper and let it simmer for about twenty minutes (or more if potatoes are big, stop cooking when you can easily insert a knife in).
Mix and serve
- Mix with a stand mixer or blender.
- When serving, drizzle on top olive oil and / or crème fraîche.
Bon appétit !
LOVE this recipe! It’s especially useful because it doesn’t involve using carrots themselves – I just need a recipe to keep from wasting the tops and I turn to this one several times a month. Delicious. We love drizzling with truffle oil.
Merci ! Next time I’ll try with your truffle oil suggestion.
Just finished a yummy batch of this soup! I used a combination of yellow and red onions (probably 1.5 cup total) and 1 medium potato. For the drizzle on top, i whipped together yogurt, lemon juice and olive oil to brighten up the flavors. Absolutely delicious!!
merci! red onion must give a great taste. Thank you for sharing your yogurt lemon and oil topping