Comforting Carrot & Garlic Soup

I had a post all planned for today, but...
                                                                            life happens.

Long week at work.

Maybe a dog with fleas.

But maybe means you treat it anyway, because to ignore would be inviting chaos.

So I have no energy left.

And, Jan and Mindy started a soup week....

So isn't it simply time to remind you of the goodness that is soup?

Originally, I was going to share my apple pumpkin lentil soup recipe, but all my photos disappeared from that post, so instead, I thought I'd remind you of a wonderful soup from one of our wonderful guest chefs.

Michelle Karl shared this recipe with us a year ago March, so I figured it was worth a retry.

 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 atwww.michellekarl.com and on Twitter @_michellekarl_.