Country harvest root vegetable soup

May 22, 2025

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This simple, creamy root vegetable soup uses a mix chosen for how beautifully the flavours blend together – sweet potato, carrots, celeriac, parsnip, potato, garlic and onion. Nourishing, never boring, and flexible too – in case your harvest basket is missing one or two! 😅

Confession: I don’t harvest, and I don’t live in the country

I’m calling this a harvest root vegetable soup so it sounds like I casually threw in whatever we dug up from the garden during our latest harvest. But the truth is, there was no harvesting involved, and I definitely don’t live in the country. I’m smack bang in the middle of Sydney!

I just wanted to give it a cute name – “root vegetable soup” just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it! 😅 So hopefully I got your attention and now I can convince you to try this recipe. Did it work??!

Root vegetables make great soups because each one brings a different flavour into the pot, and the higher starch content means you get a creamy soup texture without using gallons of cream. A generous serving of this one comes in at just 350 calories – win!

It’s simple to make, and versatile too – switch vegetables out of season or pricey for whatever reason.

Rare soup made with water, not stock

I also love that this soup is nourishing but not boring, and made with water rather than stock. Usually, simple soups made without stock can taste flat because it lacks savoury depth or richness to carry the flavours of the other ingredients. But here, we have a secret ingredient that compensates – curry powder!

No, it doesn’t make it taste Indian. It doesn’t even put it into wannabe-curry territory, it just adds warm earthy spice flavour that lifts the flavours so you don’t need to buy or make vegetable stock for this soup to be tasty.

In fact, most people who tried this soup didn’t even pick that there was curry powder in this, but could tell there was “spicing of some kind” (the official feedback!).

What goes in root vegetable soup

Here’s what you need to make this country harvest root vegetable soup. No harvesting required! 🤣

The harvest root vegetables

Root vegetables are vegetables that are grown underground. Here are the ones we use – as mentioned above, this is a specific combination chosen so no single vegetable flavour stands out too much, but instead compliment each other. But, it’s a flexible recipe – see notes below for comment on substituting.

Onion and garlic – essential flavour base!
Carrots – 2 medium ones, or 1 very large one
Potato and sweet potato – These add creaminess and thickness to the soup in a way that other less-starchy root vegetables cannot, while the sweet potato also adds sweetness. Substitute – Feel free to double up on either of these, they are a good substitute for each other.
Celeriac – A knobbly root vegetable with a texture like radish and flavour like celery (hence, the name, I presume!). Substitute – 3 celery sticks, swede, turnip.
Parsnip – Looks like a white carrot, with a sort of nutty, sweet, earthy flavour. It’s unlike any other vegetable actually, I can’t think of something to compare the flavour to! Substitute – swede, turnip.

Changing the root vegetables – Swap and substitute as you like, especially with the listed root vegetables. Just keep in mind that celeriac and parsnip have stronger flavours, so if you use more, the flavour will be more dominant in the soup.

Non root vegetables – It’s ok! You can use non-root vegetables in this too! However, note that using vegetables with higher water content and lower in starch (like zucchini, capsicum/bell peppers) will make the soup less thick and creamy, and the soup colour will be affected if you stray from orangey/beige toned vegetables. I take no responsibility if yours turns out an un-appetising colour!!

Everything else for the soup

And here are the other things you need for this root vegetable soup. No stock – just water! (See above section for comment on this).

Curry powder (mild, not spicy) – As explained above, this is the “secret ingredient” which makes this soup tasty even though we’ve only used water rather than vegetable stock. I just use Clives (or Keens, though I prefer Clives here) – regular grocery shop Western curry powder.
Cream – Just half a cup of cream gives this soup a nice mouthfeel without making it calorie heavy. Substitute with milk and butter – see recipe notes.
Dried thyme – Just a touch of dried herb for flavour. Substitute with fresh thyme, or dried oregano.
Butter and oil (forgot to put in photo!) – The recipe needs 3 tablespoons of fat to effectively sauté the vegetables. Using just butter gets a little too butter-heavy in flavour so this recipe calls for a combination of oil plus butter. But – fine to use all of either! 🙂

How to make Country Harvest Root Vegetable Soup

Sauté (5 minutes) > simmer (15 minutes) > blitz (1 minute) > dinner!

Sauté the onion and garlic for 2 minutes until the onion starts to soften.
Add the root vegetables, thyme and curry. Stir well for a few minutes. We’re not trying to cook the vegetables, just give the surface a gentle toasting which also brings out the flavour of the thyme and curry powder.

Simmer – Add the water, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes until the vegetables are soft (check with a knife).
Cream – Add the cream and simmer for another 1 minute.

Blitz with a stick blender, or in batches in a blender (remove the lid insert and cover the hole with a folded tea towel).
Blitzed and ready to serve!

Proof of thick and creaminess:

Garnishing and serving

I know it’s really un-original but a little drizzle of cream always seems to go a long way when serving soup. I only use 1 teaspoon or so per bowl, but it tastes like I’ve used so much more – great bang for your calorie buck!

Climbing a little higher on the originality scale is the suggestion to add a small pinch of curry powder for subtle boost of curry flavour. Then sliding right back down into un-original territory – finish with a sprinkle of parsley and pepper. 🙂

Ah well. Maybe my garnishing ideas won’t win any innovation awards. But the soup itself will hit the spot, especially if it’s a grey dreary day like it is here in Sydney! – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

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