Spicy Roasted Carrot-Ginger Soup

I used these delightful purple carrots. I managed to order them through P&R Organics, but sadly, they don't seem to have them anymore.

I've been getting their home delivery for 2 weeks now and its been great. I normally like to touch and squeeze and select produce in a store thereby ensuring freshness; I wasn't sure I would take kindly to having veggies selected for me. I must say that the quality has been good I haven't minded handing over some control in exchange for the convenience.

This weekend, I've been fussing over food photography and wishing to make the dishes I write about look as appetizing as they actually are. It's not easy, but I'm excited to try to make beautiful pictures on a shoestring. I have a DSLR, but alas! crummy lighting. I'm trying to work with backlighting and bouncing with *ehem* affordable alternatives (bed sheets, salvalged skid wood and a super cheap portable work light). It's been fun to explore but I've got a long way to go. I'm loving the challenge.

And to practice my techniques, I made Spicy Roasted Carrot-Ginger Soup with fresh baked bread. Soup and bread are the ultimate comfort food (and I'm still fighting a bit of a cold...mostly it's just the snot in my head that won't go away. But I so rarely get sick that when I get sick, I complain and whine in the fashion of a "man-cold")

The spice in the soup comes from the ginger. I coat the carrots with a little oil and salt and pepper and bake at 400F for 30 min. They should carmelize somewhat (you can flip them over mid-way for more even cooking). This step intensifies the carrot flavour.

It is composed of:

2lbs of carrots (10-15 medium carrots), roasted as above and coarsely chopped (it's all pureed in the end!)
1 onion, coarsely chopped.
5 cloves of garlic (or a few more if you feel like it)
Ginger, chopped. Amount will vary with taste. Today, I used a peice half the size of my (girly) hand. And that was a lot. It came out very intensely ginger flavoured. You could easily use half of that.

Soften onion, garlic and ginger in a couple Tablespoons of oil over medium heat in a soup pot with a heavy bottom. 5-10minutes. Add carrots, and cover with about 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for a minimum of 20 minutes (I suggest 40min if you have the time). Puree in a blender. Add a little cream if desired. I garnished with fried carrot slices (because the purple ring made it look great) and served it with super soft crusty bread that I had rising since the morning and baked while making the soup.



I really like this soup with old fashioned orange carrots. This particular permutation wasn't the prettiest. The orange and purple blended to a lovely reddish prune colour. Well, it was still tasty and will make for an amazing lunch tomorrow!