Orange Soup (Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free)

I have been making orange soup for my kids for such a long time that it must be shared.

Kids love sweet root vegetables, vibrant colors on their plate, and this easy soup is perfect for making your kids join the table during winter and get their 5-a-day in a bowl of comforting, heart-warming soup.

What’s Orange Soup?

An orange soup is a soup made with orange vegetables, usually carrots, and a touch of freshly juiced orange.

It’s a slightly sweet soup that kids adore and perfect as a baby soup to introduce carrots or sweet potatoes to little ones.

How To Make Orange Soup

To make this 30-minute sweet potato and carrot soup recipe, you need:

Ingredients

• Carrots
• Sweet potato – most recipes won’t add sweet potatoes in orange soup, but I think the soup is so much creamier and sweeter with it.
• Orange juice and zest if desired – kids are not a big fan of orange zest, so feel free to skip it for little ones.
• Finely chopped onion
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Vegetable stock
• Salt and pepper to taste and optional for babies.

Cutting The Vegetables

First, peel and trim the carrots and cut them into small cubes. Carrots are longer to cook than sweet potatoes, so I always chop carrots into smaller cubes to save cooking time.

Then, peel sweet potatoes and cut them into cubes as well.

Set aside the cubed vegetable while warming olive oil

Stir-Frying The Vegetable

The secret to any delicious fragrant soup is to stir fry the vegetables first.

So start by warming olive oil over medium-high heat in a large non-stick pan.

Add the onions and stir fry for about a minute until fragrant. Then, add the carrots cubes, sweet potato cubes and occasionally stir for 1-2 minutes to slightly roast and bring out all their flavor.

Finally, stir in the crushed garlic, vegetable stock, and cover the saucepan with a lid.

Bring to a boil and cook the soup for 20-30 minutes or until the vegetables are fork-tender – especially the carrots, they always take 10 extra minutes to cook compared to sweet potatoes.

Remove from the heat, cool slightly, then use an immersion blender to blend the soup. You can also blend it in a blender if your blender has a heat-resistant jug like Vitamix.

Blend until the soup is smooth and creamy.

Now, use a citrus press to squeeze the orange juice into the soup.

Stir it in with a wooden spoon to combine evenly.

Season with salt or pepper if needed.

Serving

You can serve this carrot soup plain or with some of the kid-friendly soup toppings below.

Kid-Friendly Soup Toppings

• Grated hard-cheese like parmesan, mozzarella, or Edam. Kids love strings of melted cheese in their soup, so play with flavors and other kinds of cheese.
• Toasted seeds – like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, or sesame seeds.
• Popcorn – plain popped corn is a fun soup topping for kids.
• Croutons – turn your old bread into croutons, cube bread slices, and toast in olive oil.
• Milk or cream – add flavor and calcium with a drizzle of milk you love, even soy milk or soy cream or coconut cream for dairy-free vegan soup options.

Storage Instructions

This orange soup stores for up to 4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. But you can also freeze it for later. Freeze the soup in sealed freezer-friendly containers and thaw it in the fridge the day before eating.

Rewarm the soup in a saucepan over medium heat or in a microwave-safe bowl until hot.