I love carrots and I personally think they shine their brightest when they're turned into a soup. Their natural sweetness really comes out, making for a divine soup that is very tasty, and very healthy. The recipe below is a basic recipe, but you can add whatever you'd like to it to make it your own. Throw in some extra veggies, or add some heavy cream at the end to make it a bit heartier and thicker. Cooked rice would also be a nice addition!
And while here the carrots are boiled, simply for convenience sake, they can also be roasted ahead of time for something truly special. Neither way of preparation is particularly hard so it really depends on your own personal preference and what you want to do with it. Either way, be sure you have a lot of soup on hand when you do prepare it. Everyone will be coming back for seconds and thirds!
Carrot Soup
4
10 minutes
35 minutes
45 minutes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds of carrots (about 5 carrots), peeled and roughly chopped
1 onion, diced in a medium dice
2 celery stalks, chopped in a medium dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup ground Parmesan cheese
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Whole fresh parsley leaves
Heat olive oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. When hot add the carrots, onion, and celery stalks. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes, just until the onions are soft and start to become translucent. Add garlic and ginger and stir for 30 seconds.
Add the vegetable stock and bring the entire mixture to a boil. Then turn the heat down and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, until the carrots are fork-tender.
Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until it is smooth. You can also do this in a blender but you'll have to work in batches making sure to only fill the blender halfway for each batch. Otherwise the hot soup will expand and will run out of the top of the blender.
Heat soup back up if necessary. Then remove from heat and add Parmesan cheese. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
Serve and garnish with parsley leaves, if desired.