Carrot soup with curry

We both LOVE curry.  Really.  It's amazing and it makes everything taste so much better.  Plus, you can get it for very cheap at the local farmers market (it can be pricey at the supermarket, so be careful not to get ripped off).  So, we both make a lot of soups with curry and rice dishes with curry.  One of my husband's favorite recipes is a curry chicken dish which he claims is phenomenal.  He makes it pretty often, and he actually made it last week so I'll have him post the recipe shortly.  In the mean time, here's a recipe for carrot soup with curry. 

Carrot soup with curry

1 small onion, finely diced


2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small piece of ginger, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons of curry powder

5 cups vegetable stock (3-4 bouillions in 5 cups water)

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped (optional)

5 carrots, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

salt and pepper to taste




1. Heat the oil over medium heat and cook the onion for 2 minutes.  Add the ginger and cook for another minute. Add garlic and curry powder and cook for another minute. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 30-45 minutes until carrots and potatoes are tender. If you want, you can let it cool and blend it in a blender, or just leave it as is. 

Enjoy

Carrot and roasted tomato soup seasoned with ginger

So, it's that time of the year when there's tons and tons of delicious tomatoes and you certainly don't want them to go to waste.  Tomatoes are my favorite soup base (partly because I'm vegetarian and don't use meat bases the way my husband does) and they make for a very flavorful hearty soup.   In this recipe, however, the tomatoes are not used a base, but rather as one of the main additions.  This soup is really good, and it's hard to mess it up.  Roasting the veggies before putting the soup together really does make a big differece.  It's delicious!

Carrot and roasted tomato soup seasoned with ginger



8 roma tomatoes cut into medium pieces (other tomato variaties would also work. I've use grape and cherry tomatoes instead)

4 carrots chopped

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 small onion, diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

A piece of fresh ginger (about the size of two grapes), minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 1/2cups chicken or vegetable stock (I used 2 bouillion cubes in 2 1/2 cups water)



1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Use a little olive oil to coat the carrots and tomatoes and add spices if you'd like (italian seasoning, or simply salt and pepper).  Lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Try to mix it up at least once while they're baking. 
2.Put a small amount of olive oil in a pot and add the onion and celery. Cook at medium-high for 5 minutes stirring regularly. Add the garlic and the ginger and then add the roasted veggies (and whatever juices came out of them while they were roasting). Keep cooking for 10 more minutes and be sure to stir. Add in the vegetable stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the carrots are soft.

At this point, you can either eat the soup if you want a chunky vegetable soup, or you can put it through a blender (once it has cooled) for a smoother creamy type of soup.  It's tasty either way, but I prefer it chunky.  Also, add in more spices if it needs it. 

Enjoy!

Zucchini Soup

This is so good!  Very healthy too.   Another variation that I might try in the future is to blend it to make a creamier soup, but I think it's probably better the way I made it this time.  So, here's what I did:

Ingredients:
3 medium zucchini cut into chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium diced onion (whatever's cheapest)
2 carrots cut into rounds
3 tablespoons of curry powder
1 tablespoon cumin
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 quart of water (that's 4 cups)
Salt to taste

1.  Heat the water in the microwave and add the bouillon to make a vegetable stock.
2.  Heat the oil in a pot (med-high heat; about 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-10) and add in the spices, onion and carrot.  Stir it frequently and let it cook for about 5 minutes. 

3.  Stir in the zucchini and then pour in the vegetable stock (water with bouillon)

4.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat (about 4 on a scale of 1-10) and let cook for 45 minutes

This freezes really well. I froze several portions and I have taken it to lunch with me.  It's very good!