Five-Spice Carrot Soup

I apologize to any of you who are done with soup for the season and/or those of you who aren’t soup people to begin with.  You’re about to get a double dose of soup in the coming weeks.  I love soup.  It’s who I am.  Well, it’s part of who I am, at least.

This soup was an unexpected departure from many of these others I’ve made before.  I’ve made pumpkin soup and butternut squash soup (no judging those old pictures!), but I’d never made a soup with carrots as the star ingredient.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I ended up loving the results and feeling quite thankful I had enough to freeze a few portions and put some in the refrigerator for lunches.  Since the soup is vegan, those leftovers will easily keep for a week–a welcome convenience now that my new job often has me feeling quite overwhelmed and less prepared than I’d like for Thursday and Friday lunches.

I kind of forgot I had this recipe, actually.  I’d torn the page out of the magazine years ago and it’s been sitting in a stack of recipes on my desk.  Recently, in a Marie Kondo inspired sweep of my office, I decided I needed to do a better job of tackling the magazine recipes, clearing out the pages, and getting them on the blog.  As I went through the recipes, I realized how my tastes in ingredients and cooking methods have changed; I ended up throwing several of the pages in the recycling and ended up finding some gems I’d hidden for myself.  I’m not sure if the recipes I was drawn to on some of the pages were the ones that initially caught my eye, but I found some good stuff I’m looking forward to making.

This recipe was one of those self-hidden gems and I’m glad I found it.  It’s healthy, easy to prepare, allows me to use my immersion blender (one of my favorite kitchen tools), and freezes well.  Plus, with it’s vibrant color, I think it could make a wonderful addition to an Easter lunch or dinner.  If we can say carrot cake is the Easter dessert because bunnies love carrots, we can say the same for soup, right?

A base of naturally sweet carrots get an unexpected flavor boost from Chinese five-spice, coconut milk, and sesame oil in this luxuriously smooth vegan carrot soup.

Five-Spice Carrot Soup

adapted from Clean Eating, October 2012

Ingredients:

2 TBSP olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. freshly-grated ginger

2 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder

4 c. vegetable broth

2 c. water

1/4 c. canned coconut milk

2 tsp. sesame oil, plus more for serving

chopped green onion, for serving

Directions:

1.  Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium-low heat.  Add onions and carrots.  Cook 5 minutes, until vegetable are just beginning to soften.  Add garlic, ginger, and five-spice powder and cook 1 minute more.
2. Add broth and water.  Increase heat and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer gently for 30 minutes, until carrots are tender.
3. Remove from heat.  With an immersion blender, or working in batches with a high-powered blender, purée soup until smooth.  Add in coconut milk and 2 tsp. sesame oil, then purée to combine.

yield: 6-8 servings