Carrot and Coriander Soup

I'm back with another recipe and well, if you've been paying attention - I like to make soup as well as bake biscuits and cakes. Recently, I tried my hand at carrot and coriander soup, making something I am fairly proud of. I don't actually eat soup, but the opinions of people who do have been pretty good! This soup isn't too difficult even though it might sound like it takes forever. I promise that absolutely anyone can make this soup even though it might look like there are a lot of ingredients...

Carrot and Coriander Soup

Ingredients:

• 500g of carrots
• 1x baking potato
• 3x sticks of celery
• 2x onions
• 1x leek
• 10g ginger
• 5g garlic
• 1x tbsp tomato puree
• 1x tbsp butter (any vegan equivalent will do as well)
• 1x tbsp cornflour
• 4x tbsp vegetable stock
• 1x handful of fresh coriander
• 1x tbsp of turmeric
• 1x tbsp of ground coriander
• 1x tbsp salt
• 1x tbsp ground pepper

How To:

Part 1: Prepping All Your Stuff

1. Peel and chop your carrots but don't slice them too thin. I go by the rule of the chopped carrots being half a thumb thick
2. Peel your potato and chop it into squares that are slightly thinner than your carrots but not overly so - maybe slightly less than half a thumb thick
3. Wash and chop your celery to about the same lengths as your carrots
4. Slice your onions and your leek, again about the same thickness as your carrots
5. Grab your garlic and ginger and mince them. If you don't have a mincer then peel and blend them with a blender. Put the minced/blended mixture into a bowl with the butter and melt them together in the microwave
6. Put your chopped carrots into one bowl and pour buttery ginger/garlic mixture over - put to one side
7. Chop your fresh coriander and put it to one side

Part 2: Cooking the onions

1. Place your onions into a large pot over a medium heat with a little bit of oil (any will do) and start cooking them
2. You will need to make sure they have softened up a bit, adding one or two shots of water to keep them soft whilst turning the heat up slightly
3. When they have softened slightly, add your tomato puree and all of your spices (including the ground coriander, salt and pepper) and continue cooking
4. Once cooked, turn the heat all the way down to the lowest setting

Part 3: The Carrots, Potatoes and Celery

1. Make your vegetable stock mixture by mixing hot water (I used about 2-2.5L), your vegetable stock tablespoons (you can add more if that's you're thing but I used 4) and the cornflour (this too, is malleable in terms of tablespoons)
2. Once you've done this, add it to the onion mixture in the pot and cover it with the lid
3. Carefully, so it doesn't splash - add your vegetables - the carrots, potatoes and the celery and again, cover the soup with a lid
4. Turn the heat up to a mid-level heat and half-cover your soup mixture with the lid
5. It will take about 20 minutes to half and hour for the vegetables to tenderise
6. After this has happened, grab your hand-held blender and blend the mixture to create your soup
7. Finish off with some more black pepper and cook for a further 5-10 minutes
8. Enjoy your soup!

Conclusion

Again, I don't really like soup that much but I do enjoy making it. I understand that there is a simple way to make simple-tasting soup and that's by chopping everything in half and putting it in the oven and making the stock mixture separately. But I don't want something that tastes simple. There shouldn't be a requirement for cream in this soup but there is an option to add it if you like your 'cream of' soups. But it is the potato that thickens this one so, when deciding how thick you want your soup - pick the right sized potato.

Winter time is great for soups and I'll probably be making some more but I haven't quite decided which one I'm doing next. If you haven't yet read my recipe for Butternut Squash Soup, you can do so here.