Yesterday I mentioned that I'd made a carrot & ginger soup, and this was my first time making (or eating!) this particular soup. Maybe that's weird? Is this a popular soup format (to borrow IC terminology for game categorisation)? In any case, I did a bunch of reading and youtube-watching to see how everyone else makes this soup, and combined a Frankenrecipe out of all the various bits that sounded good. I figured I might as well share what I ended up with.
Carrot & Ginger Soup
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins
Servings: 4 - 6, depending on how large your bowls are
Ingredients
Soup
2 tbsp neutral oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 - 3 inch piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric powder
1 kg carrots
1 - 2 tbsp cooking sake, or white wine, or chinese cooking wine, or water
4 cups vegetable stock
400ml coconut milk (one normal can)
1 lemon
1 tsp white wine vinegar (optional, if your lemon is small or not very juicy)
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp black pepper
salt
Topping and garnish
Fresh parsley, basil, or chives
black pepper
toasted mixed nuts/seeds (I have sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, sesame seeds, pine nuts)
red pepper flakes (optional)
coconut milk
Directions
Chop the onions to a medium dice, smash and roughly chop the garlic, peel and roughly chop the ginger. Everything is going to be blended later so you do not need to take care to finely dice or mince anything here.
Peel and roughly chop the carrots in to 2cm (about an inch) pieces. It is more important that you get everything roughly the same size than what that exact size is, in order to ensure they all cook evenly.
Put a large pot over medium heat, and add the vegetable oil.
Once up to temperature, add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook until softened and turning translucent (likely 5-8 mins), stirring regularly. Take care to not brown the onions, if that starts happening consider lowering the heat.
Add the garlic and ginger with another pinch of salt, continue to cook stirring frequently for 2 minutes until they become strongly fragrant.
Add the cumin and turmeric, stir for about 30 seconds (they should become fragrant quickly), then add in your splash of wine (or water if not using alcohol) to deglaze the bottom of your pot and help ensure those spices do not burn.
Add the carrots and a large pinch of salt and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. If anything is getting too stuck to the bottom of your pot, add a splash (1 - 2 tsp) of water to help deglaze.
Add vegetable stock, freshly cracked black pepper, and the juice from your lemon. Bring the pot to a boil and then cover with a lid and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 25-30 mins, until the carrots are fully cooked and a knife easily pierces them with no resistance.
Add the maple syrup. Using an immersion blender (or in batches with a bench top blender), blend until everything is smooth. Add half the can of coconut milk, and stir through until well combined. Check for seasoning and consistency/thickness – this is a soup, not a puree, so I did not want it too thick and added some extra coconut milk (using about 2/3 of the can overall). Add salt if needed, and a splash of vinegar if it is missing acidity/tartness (I added a splash here since it seemed my lemon was not particularly juicy).
Bring back up to temperature if you've allowed it to cool (for safety with a bench top blender, for example), and ladle in to bowls.
Top with your herb of choice (I used a combo of basil and parsley), a crack of black pepper, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes if you feel like it, 1tsp drizzle of coconut milk, and a sprinkle of toasted mixed nuts/seeds if you have them and feel like it.
Serve with a nice slice of bread, or perhaps even some garlic bread.
Notes
I guess you could use honey, sugar, agave, or whatever sweetener you like in place of the maple syrup. I had some on hand already so I used it.
I use an immersion blender and do not own a high speed bench top blender, and everything blended just fine. I guess if you were to leave the skin on your ginger then perhaps a high speed blender would be required.
The cooking alcohol is absolutely not required, I just always have a bottle of cheap cooking sake around.
