Many people think of marrows as bland vegetables with nothing to please the taste buds. If you're one of those naysayers, stick a spoonful of this marrow soup in your mouth and just try to stop the smile spreading across your face!
It's vegan-friendly, lighting quick from start to finish, extremely easy to make and will please just about everyone – from fussy kids to grumpy old adults.
Put simply, you've got to try this marvellous marrow soup recipe.
Products you'll need for this recipe
To cook this marrow soup recipe, there are a few key kitchen items and ingredients that you'll need.
- Hand blender – to turn your chunky marrow soup super smooth, you'll need a quality hand blender
- Soup bowls – invest in some good bowls for this hearty recipe and future soup recipes
- Soup spoons – don't settle for any old spoons. Get some proper soup spoons!
- Curry powder – you'll add this essential ingredient to really make your soup sing
- Creamed coconut – this is going to give the dish a delicious creamy texture and a subtle coconut taste
Recipe for marrow soup
Marrow is like a blank canvas waiting for the right ingredients to make it into a masterpiece.
For this marrow soup recipe, you'll take a few staple ingredients – onions, carrots, potatoes and marrow – and simmer them with curry powder and creamed coconut for a delicious mix of flavours.
In no time at all, you'll cook up a moreish soup that you'll soon add to your list of midweek lunch favourites every August and September.
What is a marrow?
Marrow is a cucurbit. This means it comes from the same family as courgettes, cucumbers, squashes and melons.
In fact, a marrow is a courgette that's been left on the plant a little longer.
In terms of taste and texture, a marrow has creamy flesh and mild flavour. The smaller the better – the bigger ones taste way too bitter. Pick a marrow that's no bigger than your forearm and you're onto a winner.
Are marrows good for you?
There's a long list of health benefits attributed to the marrow. First of all, they're rich in many essential vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C.
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They're also a great source of dietary fibre, which can add to good digestion, reduce cholesterol and promote a healthy heart.
This super vegetable is also rich in iron, which keeps energy levels high. Marrows also help build bone mineral density.
All these health benefits are part of the reason that vegan marrow recipes are more popular than ever.
Can you freeze marrow?
Marrows are in season between August and September, so it's worth freezing these vegetables if you want to use them for winter recipes.
Just place them in an air-tight freezer bag and label the bag. They'll keep for around 12 months.
What does marrow taste like?
Just like its little sibling the courgette, it doesn't have much of a taste of its own. Instead, it's like a sponge, soaking up flavours of accompanying ingredients.
This makes it great when cooked with strong flavours. Rich ingredients, like bacon, garlic or any fragrant herbs and spices go really well with marrow recipes.
Soup is a great way to use marrow. Soup recipes that call for spices, like this one, produce a dish with a depth of flavour that really stands out.
Other Soup Recipes You'll Love
Looking for more marrow recipes? Check out roast marrow and marrow chutney.
Print📖 Recipe
Marrow Soup
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Marrow Soup comprises marrow and root vegetables cooked with stock, curry powder and coconut. The result is a gently spiced but creamy vegan soup.
Ingredients
- 30ml (2 tbsp) olive oil
- 2 onions, peeled and chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 marrow, washed and chopped
- 30ml (2 tbsp) curry powder
- 500ml (2 cups) vegetable stock
- 50g (2 oz) creamed coconut
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 180ml (½ cup) vegan cream
- 90ml (4 tbsp) chives, chopped
Instructions
- Gently fry the onions in the oil until softened, which should take around 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots, potatoes and marrow and fry for another 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle the curry powder over the vegetables then pour in the stock.
- Turn up the heat and let the mixture reach a steady simmering point.
- Crumble in the creamed coconut.
- Boil for 10 minutes or until all vegetables are cooked through.
- [Optional] At this point, you can serve the soup as a chunky soup.
- Transfer the contents to a food processor and blend until desired consistency. [I prefer mine super smooth!]
- Season to taste, then divide the soup between bowls.
- Drizzle with cream and sprinkle with chives. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can substitute the olive oil with coconut oil.
- The average marrow weighs around 1.5kg (3lbs). Using slightly more or less won’t affect the recipe much.
- If you don’t have creamed coconut, you can use coconut milk but you’ll have to adjust the amount of vegetable stock used. I.e. if you use 1 can (400ml) of coconut milk, you should use 400ml less in stock. You can always just crumble a stock cube in.
- Feel free to tweak the amount of liquid used in this recipe. I prefer to add in slightly less liquid, since marrow creates a lot of water anyway. If it’s too thick for your liking, you can thin it with a splash of vegetable stock at a time.
- This recipe works well with courgettes too.
- Storage: This recipe freezes well. When frozen, consume within 3 months. The soup will last 3 days in the fridge.
- If you’re not vegan, you can use butter instead of olive oil. The coconut cream can be substituted with single cream. Chicken stock can be used instead of vegetable stock. Double cream can also be used, but I suggest putting in less and upping the stock content. Have a play!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Starter
- Method: Boil
- Cuisine: British
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bowlful
- Calories: 380
- Sugar: 7.2 g
- Sodium: 659.7 mg
- Fat: 5.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.8 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.5 g
- Fiber: 4.5 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Vicki
I used this recipe with a kamo kamo and used 400mL of coconut cream as we can't get vegan cream in NZ. The result was hugely successful; thankyou so much. (I loved being able to skip straight to the recipe too.)
Christine
My vegan daughter is currently bound to the sofa with a life-threatening cold (according to her!), but this definitely cheered her up. She was asking for more after finishing her first bowl!
Michelle Minnaar
Oh no, I hope she recovers! Thanks Christine