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_.

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.

Dessert for Breakfast: Cashew Chia Pudding from Cafe Guest Michelle Karl

Dessert for Breakfast: Cashew Chia Pudding – Michelle Karl

Thank you so much to Yankee Belle Café and Cate Nolan for hosting me today!

Now, I am not a morning person. I’m one of those people who needs to set two alarms: one next to the bed and one on the other side of the room that forces me to get up to turn it off. Often, I’ll set a third alarm too, by which I mean I tell my husband “make sure I’m up by 7:30am” or the like.

Guess how many times I still hit the snooze button? Guess how many times my husband has to come into the room and “wake me up” before I finally tumble out of bed moaning for coffee like a brain-starved zombie?

If you guessed any number greater than two, you win—and uh, I guess I lose. Anyway, what this means is I’m always running behind in the mornings, and I’m one of those people who absolutely needs to eat breakfast or else I’ll feel cruddy for the rest of the day. I need something for breakfast that will provide sustainable energy while also motivating me to actually eat it despite running behind.

Cue…chia pudding! Now, I know you’re going, “Michelle, we already know about chia pudding, it’s nothing new…dump some chia seeds into almond milk or coconut milk overnight and Bob’s your uncle.” Yes, yes. I, too, love myself a nut milk or coconut milk based chia pudding. But what if we could include all that fiber, all that protein, and still come out the other side with a delicious breakfast pudding?

One of my favorite food bloggers is Elana of Elana’s Pantry (https://elanaspantry.com/raw-tapioca-pudding/), and today I’m sharing one of her recipes that I use regularly. I had to try it to believe it could work, but once I made it…I was hooked.

It begins with one cup of raw cashews. Place them in a bowl of water and soak for a few hours (no longer) to soften. This will make the cashews soft enough to blend and become creamy. Discard the soaking water.

Elana’s recipe recommends three cups of water, but I found that made the dish too runny. I use a maximum of two cups filtered water. Add water and cashews to a blender. It will help to have a high-powered blender, but even a regular blender or food processor should be okay with soaked cashews.

Then I cheat, because the original recipe says to blend the cashews and water first before adding the other ingredients. Who has time for that? Go ahead and dump in your honey (I use raw), vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Blend. Oooh, frothy!

 

 

 

Pour into a jar. I use an old honey jar because it’s the perfect size. Then I take my chia seeds, pour them in the jar on top (I add more than the quarter cup the original recipe calls for, because I prefer a denser pudding), replace the lid and shake! 

What I find is that because the cashews are much thicker than using a store-bought almond milk or coconut milk, the chia seeds don’t all sink to the bottom and clump up. I rarely have to shake it more than once before putting it into the fridge for the next day.

By the time morning comes, I have a delicious, creamy, dessert-like pudding for breakfast—you could even add some fresh berries, sliced almonds, or coconut flakes for some extra oomph. My husband eats this breakfast up almost as fast as I do—which is probably why he doesn’t complain too much if he has to wake me up five times before I crawl out of bed. Breakfast is already waiting!

I met Michelle when we sold to our mutual editor - the wondrously talented Emily Rodmell - through the Killer Voices contest. Michelle's second book is out this month.