Irish Vegetable Soup – Simple Farmhouse Recipe

This flavorful and comforting Irish vegetable soup makes for a delicious meal, especially on cooler days, and is a great way to eat your vegetables!

Why you’ll love this soup

This tasty and healthful soup takes its great flavor from the root vegetables in it- parsnip, potatoes, and carrots – as well as the fresh herbs – rosemary and parsley. It also has a bit of a kick from the black pepper.

It is budget-friendly, naturally vegan, and contains fiber and nutrients from all of the vegetables for a nourishing and satisfying meal.

The most time-intensive step is chopping the vegetables, but after that it mostly cooks on its own.

Full disclosure: the way I made my soup may not be fully authentic. As far as I can tell, it should be 100% blended. However, I do enjoy chunky soup so I left some of the vegetables unblended for contrast.

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What to serve with this Irish vegetable soup

Bread makes a great companion for soup!

For a traditional Irish meal, serve with warm Irish brown bread or Irish soda bread and butter.

Alternatively, just use your favorite kind of bread, or try a dark rye bread, or a crusty loaf of shepherd’s bread.

For a fancier meal, try a rosemary French loaf with olive oil.

Prefer garlic bread? Try my vegan garlic bread recipe!

Oyster crackers or saltines also complement this soup nicely.

Try garnishing this soup with cream, creme fraiche, sour cream, Greek yogurt, grated cheese, fresh herbs like parsley or chives, or even more chopped vegetables like green onions, leeks, or mushrooms.

Can you add cream to this soup?

Absolutely!

If you do not need this soup to be vegan, you can make it creamier by adding 1/2 cup or so of cream, half and half, whole milk, etc.

You could also add a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche and/or a swirl of cream to the top of your bowl as a garnish.

Variations on this Irish vegetable soup recipe

To make this soup heartier, consider adding these ingredients after you finish blending it:

• Pearled barley
• Frozen peas
• Red lentils
• Cream
• Rice

You can also substitute a turnip or rutabaga in place of the parsnip, or omit it altogether if you’re not sure that you’ll like it. However, I think the parsnip makes a very tasty addition!

I just used fresh parsley and rosemary, but feel to add thyme, sage, or any other fresh herbs you and your family enjoy. You could also just buy the fresh poultry herb blend at most grocery stores, which usually contain sage, rosemary, and thyme. (Dried herbs work fine too.)

Try cooking a bay leaf or two in the soup as well, and remove the bay leaf (or leaves) before blending.

You can also add mushrooms or any other veggies you have in your fridge.

Cooking tip

Prep as you go

While for some recipes it makes sense to prep everything ahead of time because the cooking process moves quickly, here you can relax a bit.

You can chop the onions, then throw them in the hot pan to start softening, then follow with chopping the carrots and adding them, and so on.

You will have plenty of time to chop the potatoes and parsnip while the first round of veggies are softening.

Storage

You can store this Irish vegetable soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

In addition, you can freeze it in an airtight container for up to 6 months. You will want to leave room for it to expand a bit as it freezes. (If you plan on adding cream or any dairy product, wait until you thaw the soup to maintain an appetizing consistency.)

Not familiar with leeks?

If you haven’t cooked much with leeks before, or if you would like a refresher, you can check out the leeks section of my German potato soup recipe.

In short, wash the leeks thoroughly as dirt can hide in between the leaves, and chop the white, yellow, and light green parts for this soup. Then, you can save the tougher, dark green parts to make homemade vegetable broth with.

What is a parsnip and why should I eat one?

If you are not familiar with parsnips, they are root vegetables that are related to carrots and parsley.

They are sweet like carrots, but also have a hint of bitterness, like a turnip, and a bit of starchiness, like a potato. People often describe parsnips as nutty, earthy, and reminiscent of licorice.

In antiquity, parsnips were used as a sweetener.

Parsnips contain fiber, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6/folate. They also have anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal properties.

You can read more about parsnips and their health benefits here.

Related vegetarian soup recipes

You may also enjoy:

• German potato soup
• Butternut squash rosemary soup
• Mediterranean soup
• Vegan green goddess soup
• Vegan spicy zucchini soup

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Irish vegetable soup ingredients

Before you begin, you will need:

EDIBLE INGREDIENTS

• 4 potatoes (about 6 cups diced)
• 1 parsnip
• 4 leeks
• 4 celery stalks
• 3 carrots
• 1 onion, yellow
• 1 clove garlic (even if you love garlic, I wouldn’t add more than 2 cloves, or it could overwhelm the herbs)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh rosemary
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 4 cups water
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

• Large pot or Dutch oven
• Knife and cutting board
• Immersion blender, or use a normal blender or food processor in batches to blend the soup
• Prep bowls
• Stirring utensil
• Measuring cups and spoons

How to make Irish vegetable soup

1. First, scrub the potatoes, parsnip, and carrots, and wash the leeks, celery, parsley and rosemary. Next, peel the onion and garlic clove. Then dice all the vegetables and mince the herbs.
2. After that, heat the olive oil in a large pot (Dutch oven or similar) over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add the onion, carrots, celery, leeks, and garlic, and cook for 8 minutes or so to soften the vegetables, stirring occasionally.
3. After that, add in the parsnip, potatoes, and herbs, along with the vegetable broth and water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, then cover and cook for 30 minutes until vegetables are tender.
4. Blend as much of the soup as you’d like until the consistency is to your liking, then stir in the salt and pepper, tasting to make sure you have enough. You can use an immersion blender or work in batches with a traditional blender or food processor.
5. Finally, garnish with parsley, rosemary, cream, cheese, etc. and serve hot with crusty bread. Enjoy!

I hope you liked this Irish vegetable soup recipe!