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–+ servings
Carrot fennel soup in two bowls
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Creamy carrot fennel soup with infused sesame oil

The creamy carrot and fennel soup with young sunflower seeds and toasted sesame oil infused with crushed Nora pepper flakes.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Servings 6
Calories:

Equipment & Tools

  • Blender or hand blender

INGREDIENTS
 

  • 1 kg carrots
  • 100 g fennel (one extra small)
  • 3 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin)
  • 1 tbsp light muscovado sugar
  • 1.4 L chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tsp crushed Nora pepper
  • 1½ tbsp sunflower seeds
  • salt & pepper (freshly grounded)

INSTRUCTIONS

The soup

  • Clean the carrots with the vegetable brush.
  • Cut the carrots lengthwise in half and then across so that each piece is around 1 cm thick. Set aside.
  • Wash the fennel and cut in similar size pieces as the carrots. Set aside.
  • Warm the cooking pot on medium heat. Once warm add the olive oil. To the pot add the fennel and carrots. Cook for a couple of minutes to get the natural sugars going.
  • Add light muscovado sugar and cook for another half minute.
  • Add chicken or vegetable stock and cook on medium heat, low simmering point.
  • Season with salt to your preference.
  • Cook for 15 minutes or until the fennel and the carrots are tender.
  • Take from the heat, add the soup to the blender and mix until nice and creamy. Do this step in two batches if the whole soup doesn't fit in the blender.
  • Once creamed, transfer back to the pot and leave on low heat to retain the temperature but not to simmer anymore.
  • If the soup is too thick at this point you can add more stock or water. Adjust to your liking.
  • In a small pan add the sesame oil and pepper flakes. Turn the heat on low to medium to infuse the oil with the pepper. Stir constantly. It should take around 3-5 minutes. Make sure the heat is not too strong as we don't want the oil to burn.
  • Taste the soup and adjust the salt if needed.
  • Plate the soup. Drizzle the sesame infused oil and sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Add some green tips from the fennel.

NOTES

  1. I never peel the carrots but rather just clean them from dirt with the vegetable brush since I always use the carrots from my garden and they are not treated with anything. If you do peel them you will end up with a bit less weight of carrots in the recipe. Make sure to account for that.
  2. Instead of the blender, you can use a hand blender. Either way, it should work. I just find that the blender produces more uniform results in less time.
  3. Try to get organic carrots and fennel as they will have more flavor.
  4. If you can find some wild fennel that would be great as well. In this case, chop into small pieces just the softer parts and the more woody ones leave in larger chunks and fish the large ones out before blending. Their flavor released during cooking will be enough to infuse the soup.
  5. If you make the soup too watery note that the sunflower seeds will sink in the soup.

* Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.