Enjoy a delicious, plant-based Roast Vegetable Soup alongside good bread and a big salad. It makes for a filling and comforting dinner packed with all good things.
When you roast vegetables in the oven, it caramelizes their flavors, making them perfect to blend with herbs and seasonings for this Roast Vegetable Soup recipe. Serve it alongside Homemade Baguette or Garlic Focaccia for an easy dinner.
Jump to:
Years ago when my husband and I were visiting friends in France, they had to step out for a few hours, promising to be home for dinner. We encountered a little culture clash when six o’clock, our dinner time, rolled around, and they weren’t yet home. Somehow we forgot that French diner is quite different than ours.
I knew Michele had started a soup and stashed it in the refrigerator. When I went to investigate, I found broth and some very large chunks of vegetable floating in it. Hubs and I both raised our eyebrows and snacked on bread and cheese instead.
Later I came to find out that Michele was preparing a pureed soup, something that was absolutely foreign to me, one who had been raised on Chicken Noodle Soup that came in a red and white can. A ha. More culture clashes.
Turns out Roast Vegetable Soup, pureed and creamy is a true delight!
Why Make This
Roast Vegetable Soup is easy to make. You can use leftover roast vegetables or roast them specifically for this recipe. Roast, simmer, puree. This soup is as easy as could be.
This soup freezes beautifully. Roast Vegetable Soup is perfect for meal prep as it is good in the fridge for up to 4 days and in the freezer for much longer.
Roast Vegetable Soup is a great way to use up stuff. This recipe is a great Pantry Challenge meal as it allows you to use whatever you have on hand in the fridge, freezer, or pantry.
It’s an ideal comfort meal. Serve Roast Vegetable Soup with a chunk of good French cheese and a baguette for a perfect meal. If you’d like, you could also add some cooked shrimp on top or sprinkle with chopped bacon.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make roast vegetable soup:
vegetables – I’ve included eggplant, yellow squash, celery, bell pepper, carrots, tomato, and garlic in this roast vegetable soup. However, you can use whatever you have on hand, adding more of one or less of another, depending on what needs using. This soup is a great example of making soup from leftovers.
olive oil – Olive oil is great for brushing on the vegetables prior to roasting. It keeps the vegetables from drying out and adds a rich flavor. You can also use butter or anothe roil if you prefer.
herbs and spices – I kept the seasoning in this roast vegetable soup simple with salt, pepper, oregano, and bay. You can use your favorite herbs and spices (see variations for ideas) or use a seasoning blend, like Cajun Spice Blend or Basic Spice Blend.
water – You can use vegetable broth to boost the veggie flavor, but water works just as well. To take this soup in a meatier direction, use chicken stock or beef stock.
Variations
Feel free to adjust the vegetables you use in Roast Vegetable Soup as well as the seasoning. Here are just a few ways you can adjust the flavor profile:
- For Italian, use Homemade Italian Seasoning Mix and serve with focaccia.
- For French, use Herbes de Provence Blend and serve with baguette.
- For Mediterranean, use Greek Spice Blend and serve with pita bread.
- For Indian, add a hefty amount of garam masala and serve with naan.
Topping ideas: Add chopped green onions, fresh chopped herbs, chopped nuts, crumbled bacon, or even cooked shrimp atop this soup for a fun garnish. You can also top it with oyster crackers, broken saltines, or croutons as well as a drizzle of sour cream or sriracha.
To save time: use chopped roasted vegetables or even frozen roasted vegetables. Leftover cooked vegetables will work as well.
Step-by-Step Instructions
It’s so easy to make this Roast Vegetable Soup! Here’s what to do:
- Preheat the oven to 400 °. Place the vegetables on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush the vegetables with the oil and season them to taste with salt and pepper. Roast the vegetables for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and spotted with brown.
- Scoop the eggplant pulp from the skin and place it in a large stockpot. Add the other vegetables, oregano, and bay leaf to the pot.
- Add 4 cups broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer the mixture for 30 to 45 minutes or until the vegetables are very tender.
- Remove the bay leaf and discard. Use an immersion blender to blend the vegetables until smooth. (You can also blend the soup in a blender or in a food processor.) Thin with more stock, if desired. Adjust the seasonings and serve hot.
To Make Ahead
This Roast Vegetable Soup freezes beautifully. Here’s how to freeze it:
- Once the soup is pureed, divide it into meal-size portions in airtight containers.
- Chill it completely in the refrigerator prior to stashing in the freezer
- To serve: either thaw in the fridge or reheat from frozen.
FAQs & Recipe Costs
You don’t have to roast vegetables for soup, but you can boost their flavors if you do. Roast vegetables take on a delicious caramelized flavor compared to simply boiled or sautéed vegetables.
Once you’ve roasted the vegetables in the oven, you can prep the soup in the slow cooker, allowing the vegetables to soften further and blend their flavors, about 3 to 4 hours on HIGH. Once very soft, you can puree the vegetables into the soup.
There are a number of vegetables that are good in soup, including asparagus, beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, eggplant, kale, leeks, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkin, shallots, squash, spinach, sweet potato, tomato, turnips, and zucchini.
What does it cost?
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- eggplant – $1.00
- summer squash – $0.84
- celery – $0.20
- bell pepper – $2.00
- carrots – $0.20
- tomato – $0.50
- garlic – $0.20
- olive oil – $0.10
- herbs and spices – $0.05
While your costs may vary depending on where and how you shop, you can expect to pay about $5.09 for a big batch of Roast Vegetable Soup, about $0.85/serving.
More Great Soup Recipes
I’ve come to love all kinds of blended soups since that cold night many years ago. These are some of my favorites:
Roast Vegetable Soup
Equipment
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant trimmed and split lengthwise
- 2 summer squash trimmed and split in half
- 2 rib celery trimmed
- 2 bell pepper (any color) seeded and halved
- 2 carrots peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
- 2 tomato quartered or 2 handfuls grape tomatoes
- 1 onion peeled and quartered
- 4 clove garlic peeled
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt
- black pepper
- 1 tbsp fresh oregano (chopped) or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 to 6 cup vegetable broth water or chicken stock can also be used
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 °. Place the vegetables on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush the vegetables with the oil and season them to taste with salt and pepper. Roast the vegetables for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and spotted with brown.
- Scoop the eggplant pulp from the skin and place it in a large stockpot. Add the other vegetables, oregano, and bay leaf to the pot.
- Add 4 cups broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer the mixture for 30 to 45 minutes or until the vegetables are very tender.
- Remove the bay leaf and discard. Use an immersion blender to blend the vegetables until smooth. (You can also blend the soup in a blender or in a food processor.) Thin with more stock, if desired. Adjust the seasonings and serve hot.
Notes
- For Italian, use Homemade Italian Seasoning Mix and serve with focaccia.
- For French, use Herbes de Provence Blend and serve with baguette.
- For Mediterranean, use Greek Spice Blend and serve with pita bread.
- For Indian, add a hefty amount of garam masala and serve with naan.
Nutrition
This post was originally published September 18, 2011. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Elina
Absolutely delicious and so easy! My toddler and my husband both loved it, too. It feels very European to eat a soup with market fresh vegetables and a fresh baguette.
Adrienne
Yum! Going use the leftovers as starter for homemade lasagna sauce. 🙂
Andrea S
Best ever!!!! I love this soup so much!!! So simple! Love. Those French!!!
Jessica Fisher
Glad you enjoyed it!
Demi
Just made this today with beets, eggplant, bell pepper, carrots, and garlic. Yum! My toddlers loved it!
Jessica Fisher
So glad to hear it!
Annie
this roasted vege soup idea is now my go-to produce box, salvage recipe. if we had a week of reacting to life, instead of tossing out the wilting produce i make this soup. it tastes different every time and there are absolutely no leftovers.
i think my favorite taste came from kohlrabi-love that spicy kick. this time i’m cooking up my first eggplant, and that chunk of red onion that never made it into a salad.
i buy and add two boxes of fit-n-active reduced sodium chicken broth from Aldi. if i have a bit of half&half or heavy cream about to expire i add toss that in after the blending process for a bit of creaminess.
the more i read your blog, the more i realize your eats are good as well as cheap.
Jessica Fisher
Thanks for your kind words. I’m so glad to hear this is working well for you!
Kathleen
Hello! This soup looks wonderful and I”m looking forward to trying it. I hate eggplant, though. Can you suggest other veggies that might work in place of the eggplant? Have you tried sweet potatoes or root veggies, like parsnips or turnips?
Jessica
I think you could use any vegetables that you like. Just be sure that they cook soft enough to blend smoothly.
Danae
This soup is delicious!! I have one question, though. I’ve never pureed a soup before and I ran into an issue: strings. A bunch of long, hard pieces (I think from the tomato skins) and some thinner strings (celery? eggplant?). Do you think my blender is just not powerful enough? Or do you have any tips to avoid this? Thanks!
Jessica
Bummer! I’ve not had that problem before. I guess an added step would be to strain the soup after blending. I use an immersion blender, also called a stick blender. I haven’t used a regular blender before. The immersion blender is one of my favorite tools.
Holly
I have some zucchini and summer squash in my freezer that will need to be used. Do you think these would roast up okay? Obviously not like fresh, but hopefully okay? It’s not yet soup season, but coming soon!
Jessica
@Holly, how did you prep it for the freezer? I’m thinking it might not work for roasting those. But, you could roast the other vegetables and then add the frozen ones when you simmer.
Claire
Bringing up your recipe for our fourth batch I have to finally leave a comment saying how much we LOVE this soup! I found it on Pinterest (I wonder how many repines it’s seen since Debbie? Thanks Debbie!) and it’s been a go to this Fall. It’s really forgiving- squash, zucchini eggplant and cauliflower have all been switched in to act as the bulk veggie and worked great. Thank you for writing it out!
Jessica
So glad you’re enjoying it! Yeah!
Laura
I made a roasted veggie fontina cheese crab soup yesterday. It was awesome!!!! I didnt think I’d like it too chunky but it didnt matter.
Melisa
I prefer chunky and I like lots of “stuff” in my soup but I think one of those stick blenders would be cool to have. This looks like a very tasty combination of vegies.
sarah k. @ the pajama chef
mmm, sounds so good. we love roasted vegetables around here. and i am totally a smooth soup kinda girl. 🙂
Melinda P
Hmmm, eggplant in a pureed soup. Never tried that before, sounds good!! 🙂
Steph (The Cheapskate Cook)
Wow, I love the sound of this! Wish I had an immersion blender to make this less of a hassle, but you’d better belive I want to try it anyway!
I like both chunky and smooth soups. But for the rest of my family, pureed is the way to go.
Debbie
Although it’s autumn, I’m not feeling it yet in Phoenix, AZ. But I love soup and this recipe looks so good. I’m always on the lookout for new recipes to try and I think this will be one I will attempt. I posted it on Pinterest as I find that way I never lose the recipes. It links back to your blog post.
Blessings,
Debbie
The Gentle Mom
This looks amazing. Do you think it would turn out well using water in place of broth?
Jessica
@The Gentle Mom, if you have flavorful veggies, I think it should be fine. You will probably need to add more salt and pepper.
karen
yum! We love smoooooth soup around here. The kiddos favorite is roasted butternut squash, sweet potato, and carrots. I like to add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary with the veg in the oven.
Bette Barkley
The roasted vegetable soup sounds wonderful!
Courtney
Did you take the bay leaf out before the blending? Sounds good, I’ll have to add this to my meatless meals recipe box!
Jessica
@Courtney, YES! Thank you for asking. I forgot to write that bit down.
Heather
What a great story! I can’t wait to try this recipe next week.