Spiced Carrot Soup

What to do with a 10 pound bag of carrots? What to do? While my rabbits enjoy carrots they can’t just live off them (seriously, if another person expresses shock when I say this…) and by the time they get to them they will be bad. So I turn to carrot loving recipes to help this bag disappear. I saw a great carrot soup recipe on A Chow Life. I really love the recipes on there and the stories that precede them.  Once such recipe, and story, that jumped out at me was for a carrot soup. This has been in my to-do list of recipes for awhile and if having a 10 lb bag of carrots in the fridge is not reason enough…

I thought that the original recipe, posted on A Chow Life, sounded great but I did not have the spice mill needed for the cumin seeds, which I did not have either. So I figured I would use the recipe as a starting point and go from there. I love the flavor and smell of cumin so I kept that, but I used powder. Turmeric and cumin seem to be best friends so I added turmeric to the party. Instead of adding honey, I used agave nectar. I like honey but I have a very dark intense honey that I reserve for tea so I knew that using it would have made the carrot soup go all wrong. The agave nectar would provide some sweetness, without the floral honey taste.  Lastly, I added white pepper to the recipe. I often see recipes that call for S&P at the end, as complete after thoughts, but I wanted the white pepper flavor to stand out so I added to in to the soup. You could use black pepper but I love how white pepper blends in and gives a rich pepper flavor without saying ‘ Hey look at me!!!”

You can make this vegan but swapping out the butter for oil and use vegetable stock instead of chicken broth. I have not tried that but I’m assuming it would work well.

Spiced Carrot Soup

Melt butter in a pot. Sauté onion in butter for a few minutes, until they are beginning to become clear. Add carrots and broth to pot and bring to a boil, simmer carrots until they are soft. Once the carrots are tender, add to a blender in batches until the carrots and onions are pureed and evening mixed with the broth. While there is still a batch of soup in the blender, add the spices, lemon juice, and agave nectar. Blend to incorporate. Combine all batches of pureed soup to mix spices evenly. Serve with a swirl, or generous dollop, of plain yogurt.