Carrot and Fennel Soup

Home canned carrot and fennel soup

This is a delicious, creamy-tasting carrot soup recipe for home-canning from Ball.

Try serving with a dollop of fat-free Greek yoghurt or fat-free sour cream on top, with a drizzle of maple syrup. Or when you open a jar to heat, mix it first with a few tablespoons of SOS mix to turn it into a Cream of Carrot soup.

This recipe is easily doubled, if you have the storage space (or friends / family to feed.)

NOTE: As of 2018, Ball has increased the processing times for this recipe. The processing times on this page reflect those changed updated times.

Note about the fennel:

You can just omit the fennel, or swap in celery.

We’ve tried it both ways. The fennel taste does not come through strongly at all here. Still, fennel can be pricey out of season, and some people just may not be able to get it where they live any time of year. Consequently, we asked Ball if celery could be substituted and they said yes. “You may make this substitution for this recipe. The key is using the same quantity and particle size (dice, slice, chop) etc.” ^[1]Ball Canning to Randal Oulton. Via Facebook. 7 April 2017. https://www.facebook.com/BallCanning/posts/10155984207097892

The recipe

If you wish to double the batch, do the math first on paper.

Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)  OR 1 litre (1 US quart / 32 oz)

Processing method: Pressure canning only

Yield: 12 x half-litre (US pint) jars OR 6 litre (quart) jars

Headspace: 3 cm (1 inch)

Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)

Processing time: Half-litres (pints) 40 minutes; litres (quarts) 50 minutes

The sodium is 654 mg per cup, but you can reduce that to 73 mg by using a salt sub or omitting.

While the soup must be canned in a pressure canner, to prepare it for canning you can use either a regular pot or a pressure cooker. To preserve it: if you don’t have a pressure canner to can it, you can freeze this. You cannot water bath this.

Print

Carrot and Fennel Soup

Yield: 12 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword Carrots

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Servings 12 half-litre (US pint) jars

Calories 48kcal

Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

• 2 kg carrots (washed, peeled, sliced. 4 lbs)
• 500 g fennel bulb (trimmed. Around 1 lb / 2 medium-small bulbs) OR same amount of celery
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 litres vegetable stock (12 cups / 72 oz)
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon thyme (dried)
• 1 teaspoon ginger (dried, ground)
• 1 teaspoon coriander (dried, ground)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon cumin (dried, ground)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh or bottled. For flavouring. Optional.)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

• Wash carrots. Peel, wash again, slice and set aside.
• Regular pot: Heat oil, sauté fennel in the pot till translucent. Add prepared carrots and 1 litre (4 cups / 32 oz of vegetable broth). Simmer under carrots are quite soft -- about 30 minutes. OR
• Pressure cooker: Heat oil, sauté fennel in the pot till translucent. Add prepared carrots and 1 litre (4 cups / 32 oz of vegetable broth). Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. (Use a pressure cooker at least 8 litres (quarts) in capacity. If you double the recipe, you'll either need to do this step in two rounds, or have a much bigger pressure cooker such as a Presto or All-American 16 quart pressure canner.)
• Let the mixture cool a bit until it is safe to work with.
• Purée in blender.
• Put mixture back in pot.
• Add the remaining 2 litres (8 cups / 64 oz ) of stock.
• Bring back to a boil, simmer on low for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Adjust flavouring with some or all of the suggested flavourings above.
• Put into hot jars.
• Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace, regardless of jar size.
• Wipe rims, apply lids, set in pressure canner.
• Process pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
• Process time: Half-litres (pints) 40 minutes; litres (quarts) 50 minutes

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 48kcal | Carbohydrates: 10.1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0.7g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 654mg | Fiber: 2.8g | Sugar: 4.2g

Processing times for carrot and fennel soup

Processing guidelines below are for weighted-gauge pressure canners. For dial-gauge adjustments, follow guidelines here .

2 small bulbs fennel (discard tops and fronds or reserve for another use)

Reference information

How to pressure can, step by step.

When pressure canning, you must adjust the pressure for your altitude.

Recipe notes

• The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of salt up until 2016, then they changed it “to taste.” We left it at 2 tablespoons, for the sake of honesty (that is at least how much people would add.) Feel free to adjust: it’s not here for safety, just taste.
• You do not need pickling salt in this, any salt is fine.  You can omit. Or, instead of the salt, you can use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free performs well in that regard.
• You can use less even fennel, if you want to lessen the fennel taste. You could even safely omit it, or use the same amount of celery.
• The lemon juice can be fresh or bottled. It has no preservative effect here; the acid in it is just to wake up the flavour. Instead of lemon juice, you could use Maggi or Worcestershire sauce.
• If you think it needs something to round out the flavour, try adding a few tablespoons of white or brown sugar, or ½ teaspoon liquid stevia, or a few tablespoons of maple syrup.
• The carrots must be peeled to reduce the bacterial load going into the canner. Instead of peeling carrots, you can use frozen, or, home-canned carrots that you drain (tip! use the drain water as part of your vegetable stock for this soup). Just weigh out the frozen or drained, home-canned that you need. For frozen, follow the same cooking times as for fresh given here.
• You can purée in a food processor for a coarse soup, or in a blender for a creamy soup. If you go the blender route, you may find yourself wanting to add up to an extra litre (US quart) of stock, or a bit more even, to thin it out as it gets quite thick otherwise. (Reducing the density is a safe thing to do.)
• The danger in putting a piping hot mixture in a blender is that it could surge up out of the blender, forcing the top off and scalding you. Letting the mixture cool a bit, and holding the top down with a cloth to prevent hot mixture escaping, usually does the trick.
• If you double the batch and can’t fit all the jars in your pressure canner(s) at one go, then refrigerate the rest until you do. Then reheat to piping hot, and proceed with canning directions.

Recipe Source

Savoury Carrot Fennel Soup. Ball Fresh Preserving site. Accessed July 2015 at https://www.freshpreserving.com/savory-carrot-fennel-soup—ball-recipes-br1266.html.

Also available in a version not for canning: Savoury Carrot-Fennel Soup. Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 173.

Modifications made:

• Added the following dry seasonings: onion powder, thyme, ground ginger, ground coriander, cumin, stevia and lemon juice. (Adjusting dry seasonings is fine to do; see Tweaking your canning )
• Used all stock instead of half stock / half water.

History of this recipe

As of January 2018, this canning recipe has yet to appear in print and is only on Ball’s web site.

Ball has been slowly upping the processing time recommendation over the years.

In 2014, on its web site, Ball called for 35 minutes for both pints and quarts.

In 2016, they changed their processing recommendation to 35 minutes for pints, 40 minutes for quarts.

By 2018, they had changed the processing recommendation to 40 minutes for pints, 50 minutes for quarts.

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 1 cup (250 ml / 8 oz / ¼ litre)

• 48 calories, 654 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 cup (250 ml / 8 oz): 1 point. 4 cups (1 litre / 32 oz ): 5 points

Salt-free version

Per 1 cup (250 ml / 8 oz / ¼ litre)

• 48 calories, 73 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 cup (250 ml / 8 oz): 1 point. 4 cups (1 litre / 32 oz ): 5 points

Per 1 cup (250 ml / 8 oz): 48 calories

* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com

* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.

* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.

* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.