Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Comforting Carrot & Garlic Soup with Guest Chef Michelle Karl


 I am so happy to welcome back my friend and fellow Love Inspired Suspense author, Michelle Karl. You may remember Michelle from her previous fabulous recipe for Chia Pudding.


 This time, Michelle has a recipe for a delicious carrot and garlic soup. Just the thing for these lingering cold days.

I also want to tell you about Michelle's terrific new release - OUTSIDE THE LAW. I devoured it. My only regret about this post is that it is for something healthy like soup, and not the absolutely delicious baked goods that her heroine,Yasmine, creates in her bakery!

At the risk of being corny, a baker, a rookie FBI agent, some romance and some really scary bad guys, together whip up an awesome read!


 Welcome, Michelle.




 Comforting Carrot & Garlic Soup
Everyone is busy. You’re busy, I’m busy, we’re all running around flailing and wondering when things will stop getting so busy, but sometimes it’s hard to see an end in sight. And I don’t know about you, but when I hit a busy season, one of the first things to get shoved aside is meal prep and healthy eating.
Making healthy food takes so much time, not to mention needing to go out and shop for ingredients, too. Maybe you’re better at preparation than I am, but I don’t tend to keep a lot in my fridge because I hate food waste, so I try to only buy what I need to prepare meals. But if I’m not preparing meals, I have nothing in the fridge, and… well, it becomes a vicious cycle.
Enter: the soup I’m sharing today.
It’s fast, it’s incredibly cheap, it’s ridiculously flavorful, it takes only a few ingredients, and—this is my favorite part—the main ingredients are the kinds of items that we all tend to have in our fridge and pantry, even when there’s “nothing” there, because they last so very, very long.
Do you have a bag of carrots? A bulb of garlic? Then you’re all set! I’ve made this recipe with fresh carrots and with carrots that have been sitting in my fridge for 6 months and were trying to take root inside the bag (uh, it’s possible I may also have a “cleaning out my fridge” problem…). It tasted great both ways!
Notably, it’s not my recipe, but comes from a blog called A Teaspoon of Turmeric (https://www.arvindas.com/arvindas-blog/2013/9/29/soups-on-carrot-garlic-curried-soup ), which is run by a mother and daughter team who own the company Arvinda’s, which sells spice blends. That said, the version of this recipe up on their blog right now is a little different from their original one (which I use), so I feel comfortable replicating it here!

Carrot & Garlic Soup
It’s also worth noting that, depending on how much time you have, you could make this soup in two stages. If you’re short on time in the morning, or have extra time in the evening to prep and cook the carrots, do that. It will make for a quick “fresh” meal when you’re ready to eat.
And if you’re making this for more than a few people—double it! Or triple it! It will also depend on the size of your carrots.

Ingredients:


4-5 large carrots, peeled, washed and cut into small pieces (size needed will depend on your blender strength & how much cooking time you have!)
4 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped (or more)
1.5 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
1 tbsp. parsley flakes (or fresh parsley)

Instructions:
  1. Place carrots, salt, and water in a large pot. Cook until carrots are fork-tender. Allow to cool slightly (this is for your own safety before step 2!).







  2. Using either a hand blender or a high-speed blender, blend up the carrots. I prefer mine with texture, so I only pulse it a few times in the blender.


  3. In another pot (or the same one, if you’ve blended the carrots up in a blender), gently heat your olive oil. Add chopped garlic and saute until fragrant.
  4. Add turmeric to garlic and stir frequently, allowing spice to cook for about a minute.
  5. Add carrot mixture to garlic and turmeric. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.
  6. Stir in parsley flakes and serve hot! (Or ladle into bowls & garnish with fresh parsley.)

I love that this recipe is so simple that it can be easily done in stages, and that it’s not difficult to double, triple, or—yes, I’ve done this for a church potluck—quadruple! And for such a sparse ingredient list, the amount of flavor here is incredible. I’ve had folks ask what’s in it, and watched their eyes nearly bug out when I answered, “really, it’s just carrots and garlic, and a bit of turmeric!”
Also, if you’ve not worked with turmeric before, this is an excellent way to ease into it. Unlike many herbs and spices, the health benefits of turmeric have been widely studied for decades and peer reviewed by scientists and health professionals. And in this recipe, it’s so subtle that you won’t even taste it. I promise! (Well, unless you’re a supertaster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster) , in which case I can’t promise anything…)
Thanks for having me here today! And I hope you get a moment to, well, slow down and enjoy this dish.



Bio 
Michelle Karl is an unabashed bibliophile and romantic suspense author. She lives in Canada with her husband and several critters, including a co-dependent cat and an opinionated parrot. When she’s not reading and consuming copious amounts of coffee, she writes the stories she’d like to find in her ‘to be read’ pile. She also loves animals, world music and eating the last piece of cheesecake. Visit her at www.michellekarl.com and on Twitter @_michellekarl_.

Book
OUTSIDE THE LAW
When her apartment is besieged by masked gunmen, Yasmine Browder's convinced it's tied to her investigation into her brother's "accidental" death three weeks ago. Narrowly escaping, she flags down the car of a passerby she thought she'd never see again—her childhood crush. Unlike the local police, newly minted FBI agent Noel Black doesn't believe the attack is a coincidence, especially when the attempts on her life don't stop. Yasmine's onto the truth about her brother, and someone powerful wants her dead. With nobody to trust and just days out of training, Noel must find a way to keep her alive…because now that he's found Yasmine, he refuses to lose her again.


20 comments:

  1. Welcome to the cafe, Michelle! The soup looks great, but the book looks even better. Can't wait to read it!

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    1. Thanks so much, Mary Jane! Hope you love them both! :D

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  2. I love easy and delicious, and I have a love affair going with carrots... so this looks marvelous to me!

    And welcome back, I remember the chia pudding recipe (Yes, I'm the non-healthy eater among us, but I try to downplay my imminent demise!!!) and I think Love Inspired suspense is such a solid line of delightfully affordable books... That makes me happy, to provide good books at good prices... Kudos to you!

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    1. Hi Ruth! Thank you, hah, yes... after the chia recipe, I figured I'd better stick with something a little more commmonplace for North Americans. Hah!

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  3. Thanks so much for having me back, Cate! I thought about having some kind of recipe for baked goods to go with the book, but to be perfectly honest (and to refer to the start of my post)... I didn't have the time!!! Ack!!! I used to bake all the time and loved it, but the past few months have been a whirlwind of deadlines and I've barely touched the oven. Tell you what, if I'm ever let back into the "cafe," I'll be sure to show off something Yasmine might make. ;)

    *wonders what she's gotten herself into*

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    1. We'll look forward to that, Michelle!

      You know, it seems the only thing I bake anymore are birthday cakes or the occasional boxed mix of brownies. :)

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    2. Michelle, the door is always open. If you ever get a lull, let me know. I try to eat healthy, but I cannot resist baked goods (witness the apple turnover waiting in my frig).

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  4. Michelle, welcome!! Thank you so much for sharing this! I have been having a carrot craze lately. They have these gorgeous bulk carrots at Sprouts Farmers Market and I've been buying them in huge bags. Now I have a new way to eat them! :) I need to dig in my spice cabinet, though, to see if I have turmeric. I may need to buy some fresh.

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    1. Ooh yay! Perfect timing, then! Now, when you say fresh, do you mean fresh ground, or fresh root? You could use either! There's a store near me that sells fresh turmeric root quite regularly, but I haven't mustered up the courage to try it yet. Someday! I imagine I'd need gloves first... I get everything stained yellow when using the powder as it is... hah!

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    2. Michelle, I meant a new bottle of ground turmeric. :) But I believe I've seen the root at the grocery store recently. I may brave using it sometime!

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    3. My local health food store sells fresh turmeric root. I bought it but haven't tried it yet.

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  5. Welcome back to the Cafe, Michelle! This soup looks scrumptious, and so easy - a combination I love!

    And congratulations on your new release. I'll be looking for it in my local store!

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    1. Thanks, Jan! Easy + lots of flavor is basically my life's motto when it comes to cooking. Hope you love it -- and the book -- when you get to them! ^_^

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  6. Oh yummy -- I can't believe how simple and basic this is but it sounds gourmet. I've had carrot and ginger soup but never carrot and garlic. Will definitely try this recipe once I get a blender of some sort! Mine died ages ago and I've never replaced it. :-(

    Congrats on your latest release. I'll be hunting it down soon.

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    1. Thanks so much, Kav! It really is delicious! Hope you love it (and the book!). ^_^

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  7. Thanks to everyone for welcoming Michelle. I was caught up in state testing all day - no technology allowed.

    I'm totally with you on the easy + lots of flavor. I've recently begun cooking with fresh ginger and that adds a nice bite.

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    1. Mmm... I'm a ginger addict! I'll eat raw slices. It's good in and/or with everything!

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  8. Hi, Michelle. This sounds so yummy. Okay, do you had me at garlic. Makes me wish spring wasn't upon us her in Texas. Maybe we'll trade our severe spring weather for a cold snap so I can make it soon. I'm printing it out, just in case. Thanks!

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    2. It's great for a rainy day, Mindy! Don't wish cold weather on yourself! Hope you enjoy, no matter the temperature... :D

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