I've been craving soup, so as I continued to try out recipes from Mickey Trescott's Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook, this Carrot Ginger Soup caught my eye.
While cooking the night before I made this, I had some down time while something was simmering so I decided to go ahead and get the carrots and onions prepped for this recipe.
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| Imagine chicken broth in this picture. |
I did need to peel and chop my ginger. The recipe asks for 3 tablespoons. I often wonder how much I need to cut off of a large piece of ginger to get a certain amount. If it helps at all, 3 tablespoons weighed about 1 ounce.
I heated my 5 quart Le Creuset dutch oven over medium high heat with some coconut oil. Once it was heated I added the aromatics to the pot and let them soften while stirring them.
Next I added the carrots and let them soften for the amount of time specified in the recipe.
I also defrosted the bone broth needed for the recipe. Mickey doesn't specify whether to use chicken or beef broth. I decided to use chicken broth as the recipe seemed a bit delicate for beef to me.
Once my timer went off, I added the broth and remaining spices to the pot.
I brought the pot to the boil, then turned down the heat so the pot would simmer and then set a timer for 20 minutes. When the timer went off, I removed a piece of carrot to see if it was soft.
The recipe doesn't say to do this, but I removed the bay leaf from the soup.
I carefully ladled the soup into my blender jar. The recipe calls for a high powered blender. I don't know if my blender is high powered, but it's what I have. I placed a towel over the lid before I turned the blender on to protect against any hot liquid that might escape. Be very careful when blending hot liquids especially when the blender jar is very full.
I'm glad I used my towel as there was seepage from the top of my blender.
I had to blend my soup in two batches. Once completely blended, I ladled some into a ramekin and garnished with the chopped chives. Its summer, so my coconut oil doesn't stay solid in my kitchen, so I put a teaspoon of coconut oil on top of the soup instead of a "scoop of fat."
I served myself a small bowl with some grilled chicken thighs for dinner.
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| The chicken thighs will be blogged, don't you worry. |
Accessibility & Cost of Ingredients: You should be able to find everything you need for this recipe at your big box grocery store. I was so happy when I went to the store for ginger. I was at Sprouts and they just opened a new box of it. I believe that might have been the freshest ginger I've ever brought home.
Preparation & Cooking Time: I peeled and chopped the carrots and chopped the onion before hand but I did time myself. My total preparation time up until I put the lid on the soup to simmer was 43 minutes. I then simmered the soup for 20 minutes. It took me about 5 minutes to blend the soup. My total time to prepare and cook this recipe was 1 hour 8 minutes which was a little more than the stated 45 minutes.
I might use my immersion blender next time to save time and clean up.
Clean Up: Have an empty dishwasher to accept your blender parts. I hand washed my dutch oven and wooden spoon. Otherwise everything went into the dishwasher.
The Paleo Review: Thumbs Up! This soup is fantastic. It's so creamy and smooth you'd swear there was cream in the soup but there is not. The peppery heat of the ginger and chives balances the natural sweetness of the carrots. I've tried it with and with out the extra coconut oil added at the end and its great both ways.
It's even good cold. She says it freezes well, but I don't know that I'll have any of this left to make it to the freezer.
Again, AIP or not, give this awesome paleo soup recipe a try. You wont regret it.