North African Carrot Soup with Chermoula and North African Spices – a simple healthy vibrant soup bursting with flavor. Vegan Adaptable! Includes a Video.
Hello sunshine! This vibrant Carrot Soup with Chermoula is bursting with flavors of North Africa. This simple carrot soup reminds me so much of how my father used to cook, taking simple ordinary ingredients, and infusing them with the warm flavors of the Middle East, transforming them into something unexpected and delicious.
North African Carrot Soup | Video
And to me, is nothing more gratifying than taking a few simple veggies and turning them into a healthy vibrant meal.
What is Chermoula?
Chermoula, if unfamiliar is a flavorful condiment originating from the northernmost countries of Africa — Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. It’s blend of fresh herbs, olive oil, lemon zest and toasted spices, and adds an unexpected brightness and punch of earthy flavor to the soup.
It can be made spicy or kept mild … and be sure to save the leftover Chermoula for a tasty marinade for fish, chicken or tofu.
Think of it as a North African “Chimichurri” sauce!
Ingredients in North African Carrot Soup
- olive oil (or butter)
- carrots
- onion
- garlic cloves
- Cumin seeds
- veggie broth or chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- kosher salt
- white pepper
- honey or maple syrup
- yogurt or sour cream (or vegan yogurt or sour cream)
Chermoula:
- cumin seeds, toasted
- coriander seeds, toasted
- cilantro
- Italian parsley ( or sub more cilantro)
- fresh ginger
- fresh thyme (optional)
- garlic cloves
- olive oil
- Lemon
- salt, pepper and optional chili flakes
How to make North African Carrot Soup
- In a heavy bottom pot, saute onion, cumin seeds and smashed garlic in oil, on medium-high heat until golden and tender, about 5-6 minutes, stirring often.
- Add carrots, chicken stock, salt, white pepper, bay leaves and bring to a vigorous simmer. Cover and simmer on med-low heat for 20 minutes or until carrots are easily pierced with the tip of a knife. Let cool slightly.
- Make the Chermoula: Toast the spices in dry skillet over medium until fragrant and golden. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined into a paste, but not too smooth. Set aside in a bowl.
- Blend the soup using an immersion blender or in small batches in a blender until silky smooth.
- Place back in the pot and stir in sour cream and maple syrup. Adjust salt and spice level. (Keeping in mind Chermoula will add a LOT of flavor.) Keep warm on low heat until serving.
- Divide among bowls, and add a spoonful of chermoula, swirling it in a circle. Add more yogurt or sour cream if you like.
The soup will keep up to four days in the fridge. A delicious thing to have on hand!
Carrot Soup with Chermoula
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: soup, vegetarian
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: north african
Description
Carrot Soup with Chermoula and North African Spices – a simple healthy soup bursting with flavor. Vegan Adaptable!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 tablspoon olive oil ( or butter)
- 1 lbs scrubbed carrots- cut into 1/2 inch disks
- 1/2 a large onion- diced ( 1 cup)
- 4 garlic cloves-smashed
- 1 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 4 cups chicken or veggie stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup
- 1/4 cup yogurt or sour cream ( or vegan yogurt or sour cream)
Chermoula:
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted
- 1 cup cilantro
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley ( or sub more cilantro)
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme (optional)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- Zest from 1/2 lemon ( about 1 tsp)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes -or more for spicier
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a heavy bottom pot, saute onion, cumin seeds and smashed garlic in oil, on medium high heat until golden and tender, about 5-6 minutes, stirring often.
- Add carrots, chicken stock, salt, white pepper, bay leaves and bring to a vigorous simmer. Cover and simmer on med low heat for 20 minutes or until carrots are easily pierced with the tip of a knife. Let cool slightly.
- Make the Chermoula: Toast the spices in dry skillet over medium until fragrant and golden. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined into a paste, but not too smooth. Set aside in a bowl.
- Blend the soup using an immersion blender or in small batches in a blender until silky smooth.
- Place back in the pot and stir in sour cream and maple syrup. Adjust salt and spice level. (Keeping in mind Chermoula will add a LOT of flavor.) Keep warm on low heat until serving.
- Divide among bowls, and add a spoonful of chermoula, swirling it in a circle. Add more yogurt or sour cream if you like.
Notes
Of course you can use ground spices instead of whole seeds, but the toasted whole seeds will add that extra level of flavor that will wow your taste buds.
The original recipe included a 1/4 of an apple, sliced (at the same time as the carrots) to add a bit of sweetness to the soup. Feel free to add if you like a sweeter soup, and you may not need the maple syrup.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 357
- Sugar: 10.8 g
- Sodium: 674.9 mg
- Fat: 30.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 23.2 g
- Fiber: 4.1 g
- Protein: 3.1 g
- Cholesterol: 5 mg
This was my first time making this recipe. It was amazing! I used vegetable stock. The recipe was a lot easier than I thought going into it. My husband said it was “insane”! I cut back a little bit on the olive oil for the sauce and substituted some water. Overall, very healthy (our goal). The taste made it seem like we were being decadent, yet we weren’t. Love this, thank you!
Soooo flavorful!!!! The spices were perfect and so much depth to the flavors. My family enjoyed it as well. It was as though we went traveling to Tunisa. Thank you for the recipe. It’s a definite keeper.
Thanks Lynne!
This was delicious! We don’t have italian parsley and were running out of coriander, but we have some fresh homegrown mint which I used in substitution. Thanks!
I made this recipe for dinner last night and it was beautiful. The soup by itself is soothing comfort in a bowl. The chermoula brings wonderful new levels of flavour to it as well. Every recipe I try from this blog is a hit in our house. Thanks for sharing another keeper Sylvia 🙂
So delicious! Even my husband who hates cooked carrots thought it was great. Thanks for the wonderful recipe. The toasted cumin in the chermoula was heavenly!
So delicious! I put Aleppo in the chermoula, turned out great.
Nice call!
Delicious! This recipe is going to give your Morrocan Carrot Soup some serious competition. 😉 I love them both! I used Zhoug in this soup because I had some in the frig and it seems so similar to the chermoula. With a garden salad, this made for a lovely quick dinner. Thank you.
A great idea to use the zhoug! Glad you enjoyed it!
I make carrot soup on a regular basis. I make a simple soup, just sauteed onions and garlic and add carrots and veggie stock and simmer until done, then cream it with a blender. I do something a little different, I add one and a half teaspoons of curry powder to the oil and cook that in the oil and then add the vegetable ingredients. It is delicious, the carrots are so sweet I would not consider adding any sweetener. I make soups from all the garden vegetables using the basic oil, onion and garlic base.
So delicious! Perfect start for a dinner party with friends or just simply as dinner for the two of us.
Delicious! We made it with vegan sour cream. The Chermoula added such a lovely zing and brightness. I will make this again. Who knew carrot soup could be THIS good?!
I made this last night, with the chermoula, and it was delicious! The store was out of corriander seeds, so I had to use ground, bit it was still great! I wasn’t sure if I needed to take the bay leaves out before I blended it, but I did.
This soup is a game changer. SUCH yummy/couples flavors and I plan to put chermoula on everything I eat now. YUM.
Is there anything you can substitute for the apple? I’m allergic :/
I would add more carrot and sweeten the soup a little bit if needed with a little bit of sugar, or honey. Or you could use a pear! 😉
Where is the apple in this recipe? I don’t see it, but it sounds like it would be a great addition!
It was in the original recipe- but I took it our to simplify. See recipe notes!
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me.
Anyways, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll
be bookmarking and checking back often!
Sylvia,
I book marked this recipe weeks ago to make. I finally got the gumption and made it tonight. It tasted like sunshine. I followed the recipe to the letter (not usual order of business!) and it could not have come out better. The chermoula added this delicious brightness. Everything just tasted amazing. I live in Japan right now and it definitely had that “umami” flavor that is so sought after. I’ll have to have my Japanese friends over to try and give the “professional” opinion.
Thank you for the recipe! This one is absolutely a keeper!
-Myrian
Glad you liked it Myrian!
Sylvia,
I book marked this recipe weeks ago and finally made it. I live in Japan right now and it was great getting to fill my home with middle eastern scents.
This soup was amazing. I followed the recipe exactly (which I usually don’t!) and this… it tasted like a mouthful of sunshine. The chermoula did give the soup this added brightness. It was fantastic.
Just wanted to pass along the rave reviews!! It is definitely going into the “keeper” pile!
-Myrian
What a wonderful soup and sauce! We ate it tonight with a nutty whole wheat sourdough bread and it couldn’t have been better. The chermoula really sings with flavor – I think we’ll be using it on everything from now on. Fish? Orzo? Spinach greens? Yes yes yes!
Hi SylviaI have made a lovelink to your recipe at my blog.I made the soup this evening and I loved it, so I blogged about it. I hope that is okay with you.- Cille
Thanks Cille!
My husband and I love soups and I decided to give this one a try tonight… We both loved it. It is so simple to make, yet the soup looks and tastes like one from a cooking show! Thank you!!!
Thanks Sandra… Im glad you liked it!
This is delicious. The individual components are good, but when the soup and the chermoula and the yogurt come together, it’s magical.
Glad you liked it!!
I make this carrot soup quite often, sometimes I add tomatoes instead of apples and red peppers and it is fantastic as well, I usually add sour cream or fresh creamy cheese, but I have never added chermoula. I make something similar (but without ginger and lemon, we use vinegar), it is a sauce that we use to go with fish or to marinate it, but I´ve never thought to use it that way. I will try, now that I´ve seen here I can imagine both flavours together. Thanks!!
I’m glad it turned out. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi there!I am a midwife and am trying to get a nice collection of recipes on our website that are healthy and simple and appealing to pregnant women…like this recipe!I’d like to encourage you to submit it (and as many others as you like) to our recipe contest. If we post your recipe(s) on our site (which will if you submit them…your recipes are awesome), we will post not only your name as you enter it but also a link to your blog.Each recipe you enter earns you the chance to win a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant of your choice. (Local = where you live, and locally owned, not some big chain) For full details on the contest, click here:http://www.sacredpassagesmidwifery.com/portland-midwives-announce-recipe-contest/PS – Any readers of this blog are also encouraged to enter the contest!
Thanks for the info!
Oh good! Glad you liked it!
Great thanks. Let mw know what you think.Sylvia