Curried Carrot Soup with Ginger

It's Restaurant Week here in Chicago, but with all the beginning of the year expenses even the discounted menus are entirely out of my budget. Why does it seem like all the big bills come right after you're done paying for the holidays? My friend spend more then two days pouring over all the menus and throwing out ideas, but I went home opened the fridge and made soup.



I can't tell you how or why, but these days it seems I have an endless supply of carrots in the fridge. I don't remember buying them and yet each time I open the fridge door there are more and more packages of them. In an effort to stay frugal and eat healthy, I decided to try a carrot soup. I had seen a recipe similar to what I was looking for in the last Food & Wine magazine, but it called for 3/4 cup of oil and there was no way I could justify that, so I used their recipe as a base and tweaked here and there to make it work for me. I nixed the tarragon oil since I don't care for tarragon anyways, pumped up the garlic, replaced water with chicken stock for flavor and added a tiny bit of yogurt on top to tame down the spice. I've now been eating this soup for a week and I still love how it came out. It may not be Sunda, but this girl is happy.




Curried Carrot Soup with Ginger
Adapted from Food & Wine

- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed and sliced
- 1 tablespoon minced peeled ginger
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1 1/2 pounds carrots, thinly sliced
- 7 cups low fat chicken stock*
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- salt
- freshly ground pepper
- flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
- plain yogurt, for garnish

1. In a large pot, heat 2 Tbsp of oil, add the onion and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the carrots and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes longer. Add the water and sugar and season with salt and pepper. Simmer over moderately low heat until the carrots are very tender, about 45 minutes.
2. Carefully puree the hot soup in a blender or my favorite kitchen tool ever: the immersion blender, adjust salt and pepper to taste and serve, garnished with parsley and a drizzle of yogurt.

* You can also do half stock half water, but I made it once with just water and it was just too bland.