This Creamy Vegetable Soup is packed with Summer Vegetables, including green beans, green onions, peas, and carrots. It’s simple to throw together, quick to cook, and the perfect blend of light and fresh flavors.
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Recipe Origins
This recipe for Creamy Vegetable Soup, also called Kesäkeitt in Finland, is a dish I just can’t get over! After reading the ingredients list for this recipe, I was convinced that the end result would be nothing special.
But low and behold… It was incredible. We’ve made quite a few delicious Finnish recipes over the last few weeks, including Finnish Cinnamon Buns, Blueberry Custard Pie, and even Rutabaga Casserole!
They were all so delicious, but when I tell you I DEVOURED this soup, I’m not kidding. I ate it for lunch every single day until it was gone.
Kesakeitt also translates to “summer soup” because of the delicious spring and summer vegetables in it (specifically green onions and green beans). It’s creamy but still light, and manages to be quite filling for a vegetable-based soup.
Despite its name, this Creamy Vegetable Soup will be delicious any time of year. I could even imagine it being a great winter soup, because of the carrots and potatoes also in it!
Once you try this soup once, you’ll want it all the time!
Why Make this Recipe
- Quick: We’ve all made those soups before that require a long simmering time in order to get the flavor just right. Luckily for us, this isn’t one of those recipes! After about 15 minutes of simmering, your soup will be ready to eat.
- “Travel” to Finland: I’ve always wanted to go to Finland. In fact, this soup and the other Finnish dishes on my site have REALLY made me want to visit! But if you’re like me and can’t take a trip to Finland right now, I’m going to bring Finland to you. This recipe will bring Finland to your kitchen.
What Do I Need to Make this Recipe?
Ingredients
- Vegetables: Golden potatoes, carrots, green onions, green beans, peas
- Seasonings: Salt, White Pepper
- Pantry Staples: Butter, Half and Half, Flour
Tools
- Potato Peeler
- Large Pot
- Cutting Board
- Knife
How to Make this Recipe
Stovetop Instructions
Step 1: Cook the Vegetables
Heat the water in a large pot until it boils.
Add the potatoes, carrots, green onions, green beans, salt, white pepper, and butter and boil uncovered until tender, about 10 minutes.
Step 2: Add Finishing Touches
In a small bowl, combine half and half, flour, and whisk until there are no chunks of flour left.
Add the peas and half and half to the simmering soup and cook until it’s slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Instant Pot Instructions
Step 1: Cook the Vegetables
Put water, potatoes, carrots, green onions, green beans, salt, white pepper, and butter in the liner of the Instant Pot.
Put the lid on and turn the pressure to HIGH for 6 minutes. When the cook cycle is complete, perform a quick release.
Step 2: Add Finishing Touches
In a small bowl, combine half and half, flour, and whisk until there are no chunks of flour left.
Turn the Instant Pot to Saute and bring the soup to a simmer. Add the peas and half and half to the simmering soup and cook until it’s slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Expert Tips
- If you want to make this recipe more healthy, feel free to use 2% milk instead of half and half. Conversely, if you want a richer soup, cream is the way to go (in fact, it’s encouraged!)
- Serve your soup with a nice slice of crusty bread on the side
- If you don’t like the (slight) spiciness of white pepper, feel free to replace it with fresh-cracked black pepper
- If there are other vegetables you’d love to add to your summer soup, you can definitely try them out! Let me know in the comments what you experimented with.
Recipe FAQs
How Do I Store this Recipe?
Storing your Finnish Summer Soup is very easy! You can simply add it all to an airtight container and put the lid on.
Store it in the fridge for up to 5 days.
How to Reheat this Soup
Reheating your soup is very easy, too. Make sure that you ladle the soup into a microwave safe bowl. Then simply microwave until warm.
Alternatively, you can also heat the soup up on the stove if you’d prefer. Do so over medium-high heat.
After some time in the fridge, your Creamy Vegetable Soup may thicken and become not so creamy! In order to bring your soup back to its desired consistency, you can add some water into the bowl before heating it up (start with just a tablespoon or two and keep adding more until desired consistency is reached).
What Else Can I Add to this Vegetable Soup?
If you want to add some extra flavor to this soup, I have a few suggestions…. You can add any combination you want of the below ingredients:
- Onion Powder
- Garlic powder
- Fresh basil (don’t add until the end or it will become bitter)
- Paprika
- Parmesan
- Bacon
- Any other kind of meat you want
Did you like this recipe for Creamy Vegetable Soup from Finland? If so, don’t forget to check out these other posts I picked out just for you:
- Baked Rutabaga Casserole from Finland
- Blueberry Custard Pie from Finland
- Cinnamon Bun Recipe from Finland
- Shrimp Soup Recipe from El Salvador
- 8 Easy Soup Recipes from Around the World
Creamy Vegetable Soup
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker (Optional)
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 ½ cups golden Potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 2 small potatoes)
- 10 Baby carrots, about 1 cup, chopped in rounds
- 2 bunches Green onions, green parts chopped into rounds (whites discarded)
- 4.5 oz about 1 cup Green beans, chopped
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp White pepper
- 3 tbsp Butter
- 1 cup Half and half
- 3 tbsp Flour
- 1 cup Green peas, frozen
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat the water in a large pot until it boils.
- Add the potatoes, carrots, green onions, green beans, salt, white pepper, and butter and boil uncovered until tender, about 10 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine half and half, flour, and whisk until there are no chunks of flour left.
- Add the peas and half and half to the simmering soup and cook until it’s slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Instant Pot Instructions
- Put water, potatoes, carrots, green onions, green beans, salt, white pepper, and butter in the liner of the Instant Pot.
- Put the lid on and turn the pressure to HIGH for 6 minutes. When the cook cycle is complete, perform a quick release.
- In a small bowl, combine half and half, flour, and whisk until there are no chunks of flour left.
- Turn the Instant Pot to Saute and bring the soup to a simmer. Add the peas and half and half to the simmering soup and cook until it’s slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- If you want to make this recipe more healthy, feel free to use 2% milk instead of half and half. Conversely, if you want a richer soup, cream is the way to go (in fact, it’s encouraged!)
- Serve your soup with a nice slice of crusty bread on the side
- If you don’t like the (slight) spiciness of white pepper, feel free to replace it with fresh-cracked black pepper
- If there are other vegetables you’d love to add to your summer soup, you can definitely try them out! Let me know in the comments what you experimented with.
Nancy M says
Are you nuts??? Discard the “whites” of the green onions??? I WILL NOT!! HAHAHAHA 🤣🤣
I would say that 99.99999% of recipes use the whites and discard the greens…I don’t discard them either!! Can you tell I love green onions, plus I saw that there were no other onions 🧅 in this recipe??
Thanks for sharing this recipe !