Every year we have a Christmas Carolling Party, where we have 40 or so good friends over and we go out along the street singing Christmas Carols to our neighbours. We collect donations to the food bank and get into the Christmas spirit. When the Carollers return I give them some hot soup to warm them up, this year one of the soups I made was ginger carrot soup.
We have a collection of over 40 Christmas mugs that we have collected over the years and these make a wonderful vessel for serving soup to a crowd. Even though you do need a spoon to eat the soup it is much easier to juggle a cup and spoon when you are not at a table than a bowl. And anyway I do not have that many bowls.
I love carrot soup but I wanted to put a little bit of a twist and ginger and carrots go so well together. I used both fresh and dried ginger as they each has its own flavour and cumin seemed to be the natural spice to use, this is what I came up with
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
6 cups chicken broth
2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon of ground dry ginger
Topping
1 cup of pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
Over medium high heat, add butter and onions, cumin and cook, stirring often, until onions are limp.
Add broth, carrots, and and both the fresh and dry ginger. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until carrots are tender when pierced.
While this is cooking toast the pumpkin seeds in a small pan with the cumin seeds stirring constantly until they start to pop.
Remove the carrots soup from the heat and when it has cooled a little transfer to a blender, or as I did blitz with a hand blender. Return to the pan and taste for seasoning, stir over high heat until hot. For a smoother flavor soup I could have added cream just before serving, but there is enough rich food around at this time of year so I left it as. As I served the soup I sprinkled the topping on top.
This was a warming soup gratefully accepted by the rather soggy carollers as they came in from the rain that started up while they were making their rounds.
We have a collection of over 40 Christmas mugs that we have collected over the years and these make a wonderful vessel for serving soup to a crowd. Even though you do need a spoon to eat the soup it is much easier to juggle a cup and spoon when you are not at a table than a bowl. And anyway I do not have that many bowls.
I love carrot soup but I wanted to put a little bit of a twist and ginger and carrots go so well together. I used both fresh and dried ginger as they each has its own flavour and cumin seemed to be the natural spice to use, this is what I came up with
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
6 cups chicken broth
2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon of ground dry ginger
Topping
1 cup of pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
Over medium high heat, add butter and onions, cumin and cook, stirring often, until onions are limp.
Add broth, carrots, and and both the fresh and dry ginger. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until carrots are tender when pierced.
While this is cooking toast the pumpkin seeds in a small pan with the cumin seeds stirring constantly until they start to pop.
Remove the carrots soup from the heat and when it has cooled a little transfer to a blender, or as I did blitz with a hand blender. Return to the pan and taste for seasoning, stir over high heat until hot. For a smoother flavor soup I could have added cream just before serving, but there is enough rich food around at this time of year so I left it as. As I served the soup I sprinkled the topping on top.
This was a warming soup gratefully accepted by the rather soggy carollers as they came in from the rain that started up while they were making their rounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment