This is actually one of the easiest to prepare soups that I’ve ever made, it was so easy to make in fact that I was initially sceptical that this soup would taste the way I remembered it did the first time my sister made it for me when I was in high school. I shouldn’t have worried because this lovely marigold soup is bursting with sweetness and warmth. Arborio rice is puréed into the gorgeous carrot base, producing an almost impossibly velvety and vivid soup that tastes delicious on its own or with grilled cheese and a salad (or for reassuring work lunches on freezing cold days such as today.) This carrot and ginger soup boasts a mere 9 ingredient roster including the stock and 2 types of ginger – fresh and candied. By combining each of these types of ginger you’re lending the soup both fresh astringency and a gentle sweetness and heat. Ian and I are in full cosy mode right now, most of our evenings and dinners are spent on the couch with me watching Spaced and crocheting blankets while he plays video games; it feels so nice to have this little bubble of comfort and kindness to look forward to at the end of the day. When we enter into this quietened phase I like to have things like a pot of this carrot and ginger soup handy to be heated whenever we emerge from our own dreamlike world; I just keep it in the same pot to reheat and pop it back into the fridge when I’m done with it.
quick carrot and ginger soup:
1 Tbsp. salted butter
1 Tbsp. lightly flavoured oil such as grapeseed or canola
1 lb. young carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium-sized sweet onion, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
3 Tbsp. chopped candied ginger
3 Tbsp. arborio rice
3 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
Kosher salt to taste
1. Melt the oil and butter together in a large soup pot over medium heat; add the carrots and stir occasionally for 5 minutes. Add the onions and stir for a few minutes before adding both the fresh and candied ginger.
2. Stir in the arborio rice and turn the heat down to low. Put the lid on the pot and keep it covered on low heat for about half an hour in order to soften the carrots, onion and arborio rice. When they are completely soft add the stock and take off the heat. Using an immersion blender or regular stand up version purée the soup until smooth and serve immediately for instant happiness.
The best songs are the ones that stir up intense emotions, blissful or melancholic it doesn’t seem to matter. Ian put this song on a mixed CD for me almost 10 years ago, the first one he ever made me (and I have lots of subsequent mixes saved from over the course of our relationship, I treasure each and every one of them.) This song makes me feel the same sense of joy and enthralment that it did a decade ago, I feel so fortunate to have fallen into something that always feels like home.
The Ocean Blue – Ballerina Out of Control
