Lean Kohlrabi Carrot Soup (30 Min, Vegetarian)
- Updated on Mar 09, 2015
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Ever seen a kohlrabi before? I hadn’t, and I was really missing out. They seem to be a bit of a neglected vegetable, although they’re popular enough in Germany and many parts of Europe.
Becoming more and more well-known in the US and UK (they even went through the inevitable ‘superfood’ phase a couple of years back) they’re truly an incredible addition to any diet.
Eaten raw or cooked, they’re damn healthy and are stocked with nutrients, fiber and vitamin C, no cholesterol and negligible fat. More about the health benefits later.
In case you’re still not sure what you’re looking for – here’s a lovely picture Howie took to help me describe it. It’s worth a thousand words 🙂
It seems they’re easy to find world wide these days – most supermarkets will stock them, and if your local doesn’t then the next organic/health store certainly should.
When you’re buying bear in mind that the white or greenish variety tend to be sweeter, the purple slightly more bitter.
Whichever colour you plump for, they somehow compliment carrots perfectly. If they were in a club then carrot would already be fetching her coat.
This soup is a very rustic, simple one and it’s really quite astounding that it tastes so good!
The natural sweetness of the carrots and kohlrabi are offset by the cream cheese (low fat ofc!), and the parsley adds that extra edge.
Oh and it’s so easy, you can’t go wrong.
Health Benefits – Lean Kohlrabi Carrot Soup
The name ‘kohlrabi’ comes from two German words put together – ‘cabbage’ (Kohl) and ‘turnip’ (Rübe), and it’s possibly healthier than both.
Just 100g of it is your Vitamin C for the day, and it’s also high in dietary fiber and potassium while being low in fat and cholesterol.
Potassium is extremely important to humans – we need it to get rid of sodium and lower blood pressure.
As this Harvard report explains, we need a good balance of a high potassium and low sodium intake – and the average American’s diet is the opposite.
Kohlrabi helps to rectify this. Time to get munching! 🙂
Ingredients
- 3 carrot
- 1 kohlrabi
- 1 medium onion
- 7 oz low fat cream cheese
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp butter (or olive oil)
- 1 handful parsley, fresh (as always, dried will do the trick too! 1 small handful = 1 tbsp dried)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Optional
- 1 thumb ginger, fresh
Instructions
- Dice up the onion, throw it in a pot with half butter or oil.
- Let it simmer on a very low heat while you’re taking care of the other veggies.
- Peel the carrots and kohlrabi (unless they’re organic – you can eat the outside of the carrots and kohlrabi if you want).
- Dice and throw them all into the pot with some more butter.
- Add the broth and cook on a medium heat for about 15 mins.
- Turn the heat down and add the cream cheese, parsley, salt and pepper.
- Cook for a final 5 minutes on a low heat to get the cheese mixed in.
- Now it’s showtime: use a hand blender to process the soup (this doesn’t have to be done perfectly, uneven lumps will give the soup a nice texture).
- Sprinkle a couple more parsley leaves on top for garnish.
- Serve and mix in some grated ginger for extra freshness. Enjoy!
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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33 comments
I’m not sure I ever ate Kohlrabi. It looks familiar but… uhm, I am not sure since it looks both like kale and fennel 🙂 Anyhow, I’d definitely love to make a soup out of it!
There’s a first time for everything Daniela! Maybe your Italian flair can add a different twist to it?
Thanks for the interesting recipe. Kohlrabi is quite accessible in India; it’s called “gaanth gobhi” in Hindi which roughly means “knotted vegetable like cabbage/cauliflower”. Not many are fans of this vegetable though 🙂 Perhaps this style of recipe, where it’s combined with other elements like carrots, can improve its likeability quotient.
I think I’ve seen a kohlrabi before – but I never paid it much attention – I had no clue a soup as comforting as this would feature it!
Good luck on the Blog nomination!
Thanks! I definitely suggest trying a kohlrabi recipe, they really have a unique flavour!
WoW!! Great idea!! Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome, let us know how you get on!
Yes, I’m the person that eats all the strange vegetables, and I love kohlrabi too 😉
This soup sounds delicious!
It’s a real hidden gem!
Carrots are a favorite around her and I’ve never tried kohlrabi – but I’m willing to now. I can’t wait to try this one.
Hi Sani,
I’m sure you’ll like Kohlrabi. It’s a very mild veggie 🙂
How annoying is it when people comment on recipes that they didn´t follow, but say things like: “Delicious recipe, but I used A instead of B, I didn´t have X so I substituted it with Y and I left out ___ and added ___ instead”. I read it on food blogs all the time – in the end they changed everything about the original recipe.
That said, I tried the soup today but didn´t use veg. stock, instead I chopped up a handful of “suppengrün” (i.e. leek, carrots, celery) and because I had cauliflour leftover I also added that. It turned out super delicious – thanks for that! 😉
Hahaha, I know!!But well, I’m not too strict with my recipes recipes either when I’m not testing a recipe.
Interesting regarding leaving out the stock. Did you add a little salt instead? Otherwise I image it a little bland.
Yes I added salt and a little pepper. Oh and shortly before serving I added a hard boiled egg that I cut into little diced. My mom used to do that and it goes pretty well together!
I like the hard boiled egg idea!! It adds a little protein. Cool 🙂
Does “bio” mean organic? Also, my kohlrabi is huge, so I’m worried I’m going to use too much.
Hi Luke! Yep, organic! Sorry, got that confused. In Germany we say “bio” instead of “organic” but it means the same 😉
Hmm, I wouldn’t worry too much about the kohlrabi size. Kohlrabis are usually a little bigger than a regular sized apple. So if yours is far bigger than that, maybe you’ll have to use a little less 😉
Enjoy the weekend!!
I’m shamed to say I’m in my 70s and I’ve never tasted kohlrabi. Saw it in a TV cooking show, looked it up for health benefits – I’m intent on eating better – and decided to try it. I’ll try this recipe. I’ll let you know.
Hi Ann!
Nothing to worry about 😉
There’s always a first time. I hope the recipe turns out great. I’m curious to hear what you think!
Super easy and incredibly delicious! Thank you for a great recipe (:
Oops accidentally hit 2 stars when I hit post! It’s meant to be 5 stars!
hahaha, no worries. I’ll give it a 5 stars from my side then, to balance it out 😉
Thanks for the awesome feedback on that note!
Delicious recipe. I have made it a few times and usually add more kohlrabi as I really love it. I am always looking for more ways to use kohlrabi My mother used to serve it steamed in a white sauce with dill as a side dish to meat and potatoes.
Thanks Kat! Really glad you’ve been enjoying it. I go through phases where I can’t stop buying kohlrabi, it’s still quite new to be me really so I get over-excited from time to time :D. I can imagine white sauce and dill would fit together nicely too! I’ll have a look for a recipe, especially as I have a handy new steamer :). Thanks for writing!
Delicious! I have to admit I wasn’t expecting it to be this tasty. I had a kohlrabi and I didn’t know what to do with it and then I found this. I love ginger so when I saw ginger optional, I just added while cooking before the cream. And I strongly recommend not to blend everything as suggested. it fits perfectly! thanks for the recipe!
Wow, and thanks! That’s so good to hear. I love ginger too, and definitely throw it in when I have it. Yesss, leaving a few chunks in it really makes the difference with the texture, agreed! Thanks for letting us know your thoughts – you’re very welcome for the recipe 🙂
I made this pretty much as is, except I’m a vegan so I swapped the cream cheese for about 1/4 cup of cashews and a splash of apple cider vinegar. I also chopped up the kohlrabi leaves and added them to the soup after I pureed it. Veryou comforting!
Cooool way to veganize this one, Natalie; I like your style!
Thanks for noting it down for us. Awesome the soup turned out great 😀
That’s great! As Howie says, thanks for noting it. I’m eating dishes more and more vegan these days, so I’m also going to try your version 🙂
I liked it so much the first time that I made it again and tripled the recipe. I don’t understand the hand mixer step though. I made a mess and it didn’t really make the vegetable pieces any smaller. I put half in my blender instead and made that smooth and left the rest chunky. I did the yogurt variation instead of cream cheese and I also added zucchini.
Really glad you enjoyed it, Shayna, and thanks for writing. Tough to say what happened with the hand blender, mine normally does the trick fine. You do have to do it relatively steadily and slowly. I’m glad you found an alternative though, and a triple amount sounds awesome!
This was delicious when I veganized it — olive oil instead of butter and soy yogurt instead of cream cheese (I think that added a bit of tang to it, also). Some garlic along with the ginger is nice, too. This is the kind of soup that you could spice in a variety of ways and it would be delicious. (Curry powder? Smoked paprika? Herbes de provence?)
I’ll be making it again, for sure.
Ha, that are brilliant ways to veganize this one! Love it 🙂
Haven’t had this soup for a while, will try again with your ideas!