Lean Kohlrabi Carrot Soup (30 Min, Vegetarian)
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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!
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!