This Carrot Souffle is a versatile and delicious side, ideal for pairing with any entrée and especially fitting for holiday meals. It’s fluffy, with a light texture and sweet, creamy flavor, enriched with fresh carrots and warm spices to create a vibrant, beautiful color. This beautiful dish can even double as a dessert, adding a unique twist to your dining table.
If you haven’t had Carrot Souffle yet, you’re in for a treat! It’s a simple yet delicious dish where pureed carrots are mixed with eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and sugar, and then baked until they puff up into a light and fluffy perfection, kind of like a custard but fluffy.
It’s perfect for big family dinners like Thanksgiving or Easter Sunday, and everyone seems to love it. Plus, it looks great on the table!
If you’re looking for more easy side dishes, check out my Sweet Potato Cornbread, Twice Baked Potato Casserole, and Roasted Broccoli and Carrots.
Carrot Souffle Recipe Highlights
- An Easy and Elegant Side Dish – Turning carrots into a fancy souffle is an exciting, show-stopping way to serve vegetables! This style of souffle is fool-proof too, so don’t worry about getting it just right. It’s easy!
- Sweet Flavors – The lightly sweet flavor of carrots is enhanced with sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This dish works as a side dish or a light dessert.
- Make Ahead Instructions – Prepping ahead of time? This dish can be made up to 24 hours before you plan to bake it. Just keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to go. You can also freeze the casserole and bake it months from now.
Ingredients In Carrot Souffle
Here’s what you need to make this rich and creamy carrot dish:
- Carrots: Fresh carrots are a must for this recipe, as the flavor of the dish depends on how flavorful the carrots are! Peel the carrots and cut them into 1-inch pieces for cooking.
- Butter: Unsalted butter makes this side dish wonderfully rich and delicious. Melt the butter to get ready for mixing it in with the carrots.
- Eggs and Baking Powder: These give the souffle it’s fluffy texture and help it to rise in the oven.
- Flour: A small amount of flour stabilizes the wet ingredients to keep the souffle from falling down.
- Seasonings: Salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract bring out all of the earthy, sweet flavors of the carrots.
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How To Make Carrot Souffle
- Boil Carrots: Boil in unsalted water for 20-25 minutes, or until soft.
- Blend: Add the cooked carrots to a blender along with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until you have a smooth mixture.
Tip!
If you don’t have a high powered blender, you can also blend the carrots in a food processor. For a casserole with more texture, mash the carrots by hand with a potato masher.
- Pour the carrot mixture into a greased baking dish and spread out evenly.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown and no longer shiny. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Recipe Tips
- A good blender will give you the smoothest carrot souffle, but you can also use a food processor or mash the carrots by hand. Doing it by hand will give you a different, coarser texture but will still be delicious!
- Grease the casserole dish: Use a light layer of cooking spray, or your carrot souffle will stick to the sides of the pan.
- Adjust the sugar: This recipe is made with a little bit of sugar, and works well as a side dish with savory meats and main dishes. If you’d like to serve this as a dessert, you can add up to a quarter cup of additional sugar to the recipe. You can also reduce the sugar if you prefer.
- Other flavorings: Give this dish a different flavor by adding orange zest, pumpkin pie spice, or crystallized ginger.
- Other vegetables: This recipe will work with other types of squash or root veggies. Try it with sweet potatoes, butternut squash, or parsnips.
- Toppings: Before baking, sprinkle the top of the souffle with mini marshmallows, brown sugar, or chopped pecans.
Looking for more easy side dishes? Try my Roasted Acorn Squash, Mushroom Bread Pudding, and Duchess Potatoes!
Storing Tips
Leftovers: Store in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave to enjoy.
Freezing: Once baked, this dish can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight, then reheat in the microwave, or in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes or until heated through.
Freeze Before Baking: This is the best plan if you know you’re going to freeze the souffle for later. Mix the ingredients, add to a pan, then cover, wrap well, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
What To Serve With Carrot Souffle
You can serve this side dish with just about anything, but it makes a particularly delicious addition to a holiday meal!
- For Thanksgiving, try this in place of your traditional sweet potato casserole, along with roast turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.
- For Easter, carrot souffle is the perfect side for honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, and lemon meringue pie.
- At Christmastime, I like to serve this with my Christmas chicken or a prime rib roast.
Recipe FAQs
Can I make carrot souffle ahead of time?
Yes! Prepare the recipe as directed, up until the point where you pour the souffle mixture into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 day.
When you’re ready, bake the dish according to the instructions below until it’s golden brown and cooked through.
Will this recipe work with frozen carrots?
While I’m not sure the flavor will be quite as fresh, frozen carrots will work in this recipe. You’ll need one pound of frozen carrots, and can boil them from frozen.
Why did my Souffle Fall?
This souffle recipe is not like a traditional high-rising fancy souffle. You will see it rise a bit, but then it will fall as it cools. This is normal, so there’s no need to worry about it!
If you love carrots, this carrot souffle recipe will be one of your new favorite side dishes! Be sure to Pin the recipe for later!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Carrot Souffle
Equipment
- 2-quart baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 pound (450 g) carrots peeled and chopped
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (56 g) unsalted butter melted
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1:1 GF flour works great too)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Powdered sugar for sprinkling/serving
Instructions
- Put your chopped carrots in a pot of water. Boil them until they’re soft, which should take about 20-25 minutes. Once the carrots are soft, drain the water and let them cool down. This is important before adding the eggs.
- Preheat your oven on to 350°F (180°C), and grease a 2 quart baking dish with butter or cooking spray.
- Place the cooled carrots in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the eggs, melted butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to the food processor. Blend until smooth and everything is mixed together.
- Pour the carrot mixture into your greased baking dish.
- Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top begins to turn golden brown and no longer shiny. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes and sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
Notes:
- A good blender will give you the smoothest carrot souffle, but you can also use a food processor or mash the carrots by hand. Doing it by hand will give you a different, coarser texture but will still be delicious!
- Adjust the sugar: This recipe is made with a little bit of sugar, and works well as a side dish with savory meats and main dishes. If you’d like to serve this as a dessert, you can add up to a quarter cup of additional sugar to the recipe.
- Other flavorings: Give this dish a different flavor by adding orange zest, pumpkin pie spice, or crystallized ginger.
- Other vegetables: This recipe will work with other types of squash or root veggies. Try it with sweet potatoes, butternut squash, or parsnips.
- Toppings: Before baking, sprinkle the top of the souffle with mini marshmallows, brown sugar, or chopped pecans.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Michelle says
Can you double the recipe for a large crowd using the same proportions?
Little Sunny Kitchen says
I haven’t tried to double the recipe, but I think that you could! You may need to increase the bake time in this case.
Nancy Aaron says
Love this recipe normally I’m not a carrot lover, but by the time you can find it with the cinnamon, it always taste great have made it and we’ll make it again
Little Sunny Kitchen says
Thanks Nancy, I’m glad you liked it enough to make it again!