The Carrot Soup + Topping Combo That I Didn’t Know I Needed
This combination is dynamite. Wow. We did this for dinner last week and it was amazing.
Two main parts:
- a silky carrot soup (think coconut milk, madras curry powder, onions and carrots) – borderline 5 ingredients and very easy
- an equally easy savory ground beef skillet with toasty pine nuts and lemon zest (similar to this caramelized beef, too!)
And then (wait for it) we’re putting the spiced beef and pine nuts on top of the soup. And adding some thinly sliced shallots, a swirl of yogurt, and dipping into that beauty with some warm flatbread! She is beauty, she is grace, she is layered to the maximum with textures and flavors (savory, toasty, bright, warming, all of it)! I am here for every single dunk of that bread through the creamy carrot soup.
My kids love that this is a build-your-own situation (which, for them, mostly consists of soup and bread). Meanwhile, Bjork and I get to go a little overboard with toppings and feel like we’re eating out in a fun restaurant. Wins all around! Hope you love it!
Want more cozy soups? Check out my lineup here!
Watch How To Make This Soup
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Carrot Soup with Spiced Ground Beef and Pine Nuts
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
Description
Silky carrot soup topped with spiced ground beef and toasty pine nuts! Bright, savory, warming, all the best things!
Ingredients
Carrot Soup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon beef flavor base
- 2 teaspoons hot madras curry powder (regular curry powder works, too)
- 1 14–ounce can coconut milk
- 3 1/2 cups water
Spiced Ground Beef and Pine Nuts
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon beef flavor base
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
- a bit of lemon zest
For Serving:
- thinly sliced shallot (love)
- plain yogurt
- flatbread
Instructions
- Carrot Soup: Heat a soup pot over medium high heat. Add oil, onions, carrots, bouillon, and curry powder. Sauté for 3-5 minutes.
- Simmer: Add water; simmer for 15 minutes.
- Puree: Add coconut milk; puree with an immersion blender until smooth. (affiliate link)
- Cook the Ground Beef: heat a large skillet with the oil over medium high heat. Brown the ground beef until cooked (season with a little bit of salt and pepp).
- Ground Beef Extras: Stir in tomato paste, bouillon, and garam masala; sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add pine nuts, parsley, and lemon zest and sauté until toasty and fragrant.
- Serving: Serve soup topped with a scoop of the ground beef, and whatever other toppings you like (I love this with thinly sliced shallot, a swirl of plain yogurt, and some flatbread for dipping).
Notes
To make the yogurt easier to swirl on top of the bowl, I usually thin it out with a bit of water until it drizzles off a spoon.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: carrot soup, crispy ground beef, ground beef topping, creamy carrot soup, healthy soup
This soup is truly luscious. I make a lot of soups, and after I made this one, I texted my husband and kids and told them that I had just made one of the best soups ever!
Thank you for such a great recipe!
Saw this on your IG and finally decided to try it. Wow! It was dead easy and so hearty. I subbed walnuts for pine nuts bc it was what we had in the pantry. I know, I know. There’s always a commenter subbing and switching things around. It still it came out great. My 8 and 10 year old had no complaints. I plan to make this recipe again as we continue to enter cooler months and temps! Commenting to support your site. x
So glad you enjoyed it, love the swap!
This is the best soup I’ve ever made. I stumbled across this recipe and don’t know how I got so lucky! It was SO easy to make and reheats like a dream. I personally like it just as much without the beef. I’ll be making this all winter! Thank you!!
Hi Lindsay, just enjoyed your Carrot Soup with Spiced Ground Beef, including the “Better than Bouillon” Beef product. Just a question, when you say to add this as an ingredient you also mention adding water to make the soup, but in the topping do you just add the bouillon paste? I guess I’m not sure if you mean to add the concentrated paste or reconstituted broth. Thanks for quick reply… I signed up for your recipes and have been cooking quite a few of them for my wife and I!
Hi! We add the paste to the ground beef.
So surprisingly delicious! I especially love the way the ground beef is flavored with the bright lemon and warm garam masala. I paired it with homemade naan. Can’t wait to make it again!
Can this be made with coconut milk? You know – the kind in the non-dairy milk section? Just trying to reduce our fat intake.
We wouldn’t recommend that, it doesn’t have the same body or richness that the soup needs.
Amazing soup. So simple to make, love the little hint of lemon zest.
I love this soup! So comforting for fall. The only change I make is I use ground tofu instead of ground beef because I’m vegan and it turns out really good!
Love that swap!
First off I have never left a recipe review but this recipe deserves one!!
This is one of the best meals I’ve made and my chef partner agrees. The meat has so much flavor! And the soup was so easy and yummy. I tweaked it a bit for what I had a on hand and served it as a rice bowl because I didn’t have naan topped with dill and cilantro because no parsley, Costco tzatziki because no yogurt, quick pickled cucumbers and the thinly sliced shallots. We’re already planning on when to make it again!
That sounds amazing!
This soup is delicious! All flavours complement each other, and the beef taste brings depth to the carrots and balances the sweetness of the coconut milk! Yum! Will be making this again. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Can I make this in the slow cooker- after the carrots are soft, should I then use the immersion blender with the coconut milk? Continue cooking in the slow cooker for a couple of hours after blending?
I saw this on an Instagram roundup and was intrigued, so I made it. I think I would in the future make the carrot soup part with chicken broth or veggie broth rather than beef broth, as the soup was more of an unappetizing brownish latte color than the bright orange shown in the images. Also recommend a squeeze of lemon juice to serve—IMO it’s asking for more acid.
Delicious! I ended up almost doubling the ground beef topping because I had a 1.7lb package, but it felt like a good amount. The spices shine through, giving a very simple dish a depth of flavor. The only other thing I changed was adding the lemon juice from the zested lemon to the soup to brighten it up a bit; it seems like the yogurt would serve the same purpose, though. Served with flatbreads and sliced green onions on top and it was a winner dinner.
Yes, we love adding a dollop of yogurt to each bowl when serving!
Another recipe that sounds kind of strange, but is the best mix of flavors! I’m looking forward to making it again – and one of my (somewhat picky-eater) friends already tried it for her family and loved it, too.
I make POY recipes all the time – rarely comment, but this time I was compelled to! This was so yummy and beautiful, it looked restaurant quality. My husband is a bit hesitant around all things “curry”. He’s come to see the light on Thai curry recently but this was the first time he was totally on board with Indian curry flavors – a win! Also got my 3 year old’s stamp of approval.
Ah-mazing!! Holy smokes, what a great combination of flavors and textures that, when combined, are warm, comforting, healthy and just absolutely delicious. I feel like I just made a restaurant quality soup for myself. Thank you for sharing this fabulous recipe!
I rarely leave reviews, but this was SO phenomenal I had to. Absolutely delicious and surprisingly easy to make. The only “hard” part is using your immersion blender. I didn’t even buy whole carrots and chop them up. Instead I bought two bags of baby carrots and just threw them in the pot. It took a little longer to soften, but made it SO easy. Paired with some frozen TJ’s naan, my husband said this is one of the best meals I’ve ever made (and I cook most nights ha). Can’t sing the praises of this recipe enough.
Could you make the soup in the instant pot? Time/ingredients?
This was a delicious and interesting soup. I made the liquid part in my 6 quart Instant Pot. While I prepared the meat portion on the stove I cooked the carrots, onions, etc., for 5 minutes on high in the IP and did a 10 minute natural release before mixing in the coconut milk with the immersion blender – quick, easy, elegant and tasty.
This was really good, Lindsay! Unique soup that reminded me in some ways of the hummus + spiced ground beef app from a restaurant. We were surprised how filling and hearty it was, too! Don’t skip the shallots and yogurt, either — great additions.
I made this for dinner last night, and it was delicious!! The flavor combos worked so well. I made it pretty much as written- the only changes I made were to sub light coconut milk, and to fry the shallots to crispy to use on top. Wow! A keeper!
I don’t have the beef bouillon flavor base. I’m curious how essential that is, or if there is a replacement?
Hi Anne! It really is essential. We tested several ways and it really gave the best flavor. You could try beef stock instead of water, but the color might be a bit different and not sure if it would have as much flavor.
We are a vegetarian household and tried it with veggie bouillon and veggie beef crumbles. I’m suits wasn’t the same, but still delicious! A huge hit.
This was fire!!!!!! Love it
Really good!
So fast and easy to make on a weeknight. Loved the minimal dishes since I eyeballed most of the measurements. Will definitely be making again!
I knew as soon as I saw this it was going to be delicious, although my husband was super skeptical. After one bite, he said “This is so good, this is fancy restaurant quality.” 😀 We try to avoid red meat so I made it with ground turkey, and it was still just that good! (I think the better than bouillon definitely helped here).
Thank you for the great recipes!