Spiced Carrot Soup

Tuesday 30 April 2019


Spiced Carrot Soup. I guarantee you are going to love this carrot ginger soup.  Its easy to make and oh so delicious!

We are at that time of year now where our stored and root vegetables are beginning to get tired and no longer at their very best.  

Too early for the fresh crops, we make do with what we can get . . .  I often find that my onions have started to go a bit . . .


I find myself having to peel off and discard several layers before I get to what is good and usable . . .  all of these winter vegetables might be a bit past their prime, but they are still fabulous for things like soups and stews.  

You are going to love this soup I am sharing with you today . . .  Spiced Carrot Soup, or the soup that almost wasn't! Today was one of those days  . . . when anything that could go wrong went wrong  . . .


Everything for the soup went together quickly and easily . . .  it makes good use of onions, garlic, and carrots . . . some grated fresh ginger root . . .  warm spices . . .


Ground cumin, turmeric, cinnamon  . . .  all very aromatic and  when combined most delicious . . .


These are cooked in chicken stock until the carrots are meltingly tender  . . .  be warned it smells heavenly when it is cooking  . . . 


After that all you need to do is puree it . . .  simple. Right???  Right!!!  Normally I would use my stick blender, but do you think I could find the motor for mine today???   



It was nowhere to be found.  All of the attachments were at the ready, but no motor, and I looked every where . . . even in places it couldn't possibly be, but I thought I would check anyways.  

I even had my husband come in and look . . .  sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees and I thought perhaps he could see what I couldn't.


I opened one of the upper cupboards to see if I had crazily put it in there and my pack of Miso Paste flew out of the cupboard landing in the soup and splattering it all over the counter top and back splash  . . .  dripping off my knife block and cutting boards . . .  into our toaster  . . .  grrrr  . . .  

You know how turmeric stains  . . . BLAH!  Most annoying


I could not find it anywhere. 

I can only think (and I really  hope that this isn't what happened) that it got accidentally thrown out the last time I used it, which doesn't make sense, but I don't know where else it could be.  I have looked everywhere. 



After I cleaned up the mess, I had to dig my big blender out from the back of the wardrobe upstairs, where it is stored. 

 I was quite happy at that point that I hadn't given it away.  It did need a good cleaning however. 


Its so big and bulky that it just can't live in my kitchen.  

The stick blender does a great job, takes up a lot less room and is a lot easier to clean, so that is normally what I use.  

But meh . . . today  I had to do what I had to do.



So into the now cleaned blender on the now cleaned counter the soup went. It blitzed up beautifully in about 30 seconds.  

I threw poured it back into the saucepan and reheated it gently until it was hot again, and stirring in some lime juice and a bit of brown sugar, it was then ready to eat.


With a dollop of plain yogurt on top and a sprinkling of lemon zest and black pepper it was THE BEST CARROT SOUP EITHER OF US HAS EVER EATEN!


I kid you NOT . . .  simple to make (aside from the comedy of errors and happenstances), using simple ingredients, but totally, TOTALLY delicious. 

What a wonderful combination of flavours.  My husband had two helpings and I was sorely tempted to do the same!

Spiced Carrot Soup


Yield: 4
Author:
You can thicken the soup with a handful of basmati rice if you wish. This soup is really delicious as is. If you don't have or can't find sumac, you can substitute a mix of lemon zest and coarse black pepper for it.

ingredients:

  • 2 TBS olive oil
  • 2 medium onions, peeled and diced
  • 2 tsp freshly grated ginger root
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 kg carrots, peeled and sliced (2.2 pounds)
  • 1 1/2 litres of chicken stock (about 6 cups)
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 1 TBS lime juice
  • fine sea salt
To serve:
  • Plain yogurt
  • ground sumac to sprinkle

instructions:

How to cook Spiced Carrot Soup

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan with a heavy bottom.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent without colouring.  Add the garlic, grated ginger and all of the spices. Cook, stirring until quite fragrant.  Add the carrots and toss to coat them with the spice mixture.  Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes until the carrots are soft and meltingly tender.
  2. Remove from the heat and puree using a stick blender, or very carefully in a full sized blender or food processor.  Take care as it will be quite hot and you don't want to scald yourself.  Return to the stove and gently reheat.  Stir in the lime juice and brown sugar.  Taste and adjust seasoning as required with salt.
  3. Ladle into heated bowls, garnishing each with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of sumac. Delicious!
Created using The Recipes Generator




If you only try one soup this week, let it be this one!  I promise you that you will fall in love with it.  I can't wait to have some company now and serve them this as a first course.  It is AMAZING!  Truly. I promise.   I really hope that I can find my stick blender motor.  I feel quite lost without it! I hope that I don't have to buy a new one. 😟😟😟

Spiced Carrot Soup
 
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10 comments

  1. Marie...where you just rearranged your furniture recently and moved your cabinet to place your television on, could the stick blender be in that cabinet or another piece of furniture that got moved? Hope you find it soon. Hugs from Idaho - Marsha

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    Replies
    1. I did wonder about that Marsha. I have looked everywhere, to no avail. I recently had a juicer engine blow up and I am wondering if when we threw the motor base away, somehow the stick blender motor got thrown as well. It will probably show up after I have bought a new one! lol That's the way it goes! In the meantime I have my normal blender. I don't use it near often enough! xoxo

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  2. I usually find that if one thing goes wrong it is better to admit defeat and go back to bed for the day. If I don't then a comedy of erros ensues.

    As soon as I have finished eating my cauliflower, garlic and Turmeric soup I shall attempt your carrot one. Thanks for the recipe!

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    1. LOL Toffeeapple. I am so stubborn I stick with things when I should just walk away! You are going to fall in love with this soup! xoxo

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  3. I love making soups as I find it relaxing to sit and chop up the vegetables as it stirs wonderful memories of days spent in gran's kitchen helping her prepare soup and talking about life. Precious memories. And this soup sounds delicious and one I will make later in the week. Yum.

    Oh dear about the mishap in the kitchen. I've been there and done that as well. And soup was the culprit once as well. I was making a Polynesian Lentil Soup, and I was using a nice new blender that I had never used before. I discovered that hard way that it is a good idea to secure the lid well, even keeping a hand on it, as it may not lock as firmly as the old blender. That way, I could have ensured that the soup remains INSIDE the blender during processing, rather than spurting up in a hot spicy fountain and covering the cupboards, the open cutlery drawer, the bench tops, walls, floors, mixer, microwave, coffee machine, freshly filled fruit bowl, cask of wine, digital camera (fortunately in its protective case), mobile phone, pile of newly written and addressed christmas cards and calendar. It would also have prevented me and the passing dog having a pre-dinner lentil shower.

    It was a long, depressing clean up in which I dropped one of my precious glass storage drawers because my hands were soapy and soupy, smashing it into a zillion tiny shards across the half cleaned mess at which point I burst into tears. But I was lucky enough to have a wonderful viking who appeared, planted a kiss on my lips, escorted me to the sofa while he expertly finished the cleaning of the kitchen.

    I can laugh now, but then it was awful. And then there was the flying pizza dough story, but I'll save that for another time - ha, ha!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Loved reading about your childhood memory Marie! Oh, its so not funny when these things happen, but thankfully with time we can look back and have a good laugh. I am looking forward to hearing your flying pizza story one day! I know you and LG will love this soup! xoxo

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  4. I hear you:) Kitchen mishaps..and I hear you re the big blender.Since the hand blender..that blender is tucked who knows where:) I love the stick blender.I hope you find the motor and the soup looks great!Poor you:(

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    Replies
    1. Oh boy Monique, I sure wish I could find it. Its my little work horse and something which I used frequently. If I don't find it soon, I will just have to buy a new one and you know what will happen then don't you? I will find the old one! Hah! The soup is excellent! xoxo

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  5. This truly sounds to die for. But oh, what a journey to get there! We all have kitchen mishaps (I had a big one tonight involving a hot pan of macaroni, much of which landed in the sink!). So I get it. But this really looks worth it all!

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    Replies
    1. I suppose we all have a kitchen story that reads like a comedy of errors Jeanie! lol You are going to love this soup! xoxo

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