Orange Soup…Otherwise Known as Pressure Cooker Carrot Soupfeatured

When I grew up my Mom always made the best soups. It was something that her Mom had taught her and then my Mom proceeded to teach me. I loved soups…any and all soups! Still to this day I feel like there is no other comfort food greater than soups. Imagine my horror when I realized that my oldest daughter absolutely hated them…any and all soups! Thankfully we had another daughter and so I had another chance. What were the odds that I would have two children who both hated soups??? Well I can’t say that she loves soups as much as I did, but she has her favorites and this one is at the top!

I found this soup recipe in the Modernist Cuisine at Home cookbook. It’s hard to call it just a cookbook because the photography is stunning. I actually leave it out as a coffee table book when I’m having a dinner party. It truly is a work of art. The book definitely has some very daunting and labor-intensive recipes, but there are also some simple recipes that use few ingredients and modern cooking techniques to produce phenomenal results. This soup is definitely one of those recipes.

All the ingredients you need for this soup!

How do I love this soup…let me count the ways! I love that this soup has no milk or cream. I also love that this soup takes so little time and ingredients to make. Most of my go-to soup recipes are daylong efforts, but that just isn’t always manageable with a young family. This soup can easily be done on a weeknight, or even better, get it done in the morning when the kids head off to school and all you have to do that night is heat it up. I love how much flavor this soup has. After only 20 minutes of cooking, you have the most intensely caramelized, slow roasted carrot flavor imaginable.

Now in the efforts of full disclosure…please do not think that this is a low-fat soup. There is no milk or cream in it, but there is plenty of butter. All that butter means that this soup is velvety and rich – something that most vegetable soups fall short of. But those calories are worth it…this soup is amazing!

Alright here we go – the first thing you will need is a pressure cooker. I think a lot of people have one collecting dust at the back of their cabinets. Well get it out, dust it off and let’s get cooking.

First off, we need to clean and cut our carrots. In Modernist Cuisine At Home, they recommend to remove the cores of the carrots and discard. I have not noticed any textural issues with leaving the cores in, and really it’s one less thing you have to do. Simply peel the carrots and roughly cut them into 2 inch long pieces.

I love my Cuisinart digital pressure cooker!

Next you want to melt your butter in the pressure cooker over medium heat. If you have a digital pressure cooker, then you can just set it to Saute. Add the carrots, water, salt and baking soda. Set your pressure cooker to go for 20 minutes and de-pressurize it quickly when the time is up. On a manual pressure cooker, you can do this by simply running the rim under tepid water. 

Set the pressure cooker to High for 20 minutes.

Don’t they look amazing after just 20 minutes in the pressure cooker?

Once the pressure cooker is done, I put the contents into my blender and process it until its smooth. 

Then you simply stir the carrot juice into the pot of carrot puree. I let it come back to a boil and then use an immersion blender to blend in the butter.

At this point the soup is done. Super easy and quick, but the taste is amazing! You can enjoy it as is or use one of the suggested garnishes to add a little spin to it.