Meatless Monday: Curried Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

It looks like I’m spoiling you guys this week; two recipes in 2 days! AND it’s the return of Meatless Monday on A Healthy J.D. (Cue golf clap)

Anyhow, I’m still having a bit of a love affair with my Blendtec. Thank you Tom Dickson for creating such a powerhouse appliance.

I’ve now made almond butter, hummus and soup with my Blendtec.  For the soup I decided to try the Wildside jar since it’s wilder wider and holds more. With a name like Wildside I knew I had to make a special soup, not just any soup would suffice. I needed something spicy and well, wild.

I also had two sweet potatoes and a 5 pound bag of baby carrots to use up this week. Whenever I think of carrot soup I think of ginger, and when I think of ginger I think of curry. Indian or Thai, doesn’t matter so long as it includes coconut milk, ginger, garlic and spice.

Curried Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 cups baby carrots (or 1 lb of carrots, sliced)
• 4 cups of coconut milk (I made my own, check out the recipe and how to here)
• 4 cups of vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp sliced ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (I actually used more than  1/2 tsp and it was SPICY)
• Salt, to taste
• 1 Tbsp canola oil

This soup is super easy to make with a blender, or an immersion blender.

1. Lay sweet potato slices and carrots onto a baking sheet and lightly brush with canola oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

2. Heat some oil in the bottom of a soup pan. Sautee garlic and ginger for a minute or so. Add curry and cayenne powder, coconut milk and veggie broth. Bring liquid to a boil briefly and then let mixture simmer until vegetables are done roasting.

3. Combine roasted vegetables and liquid in blender and puree. (If using an immersion blender, just add roasted vegetables to soup pot and blend in there)

4. Pour soup mixture back into soup pot and simmer for about 10 minutes (you can simmer for as long as you want but the soup is pretty rich in flavor after 10 minutes). Salt to taste.

5. Enjoy

So yeah, I’d love to say this meal was as flawlessly executed as I make it appear but there was a bit of an accident. I trusted my blender a little too much and walked away to rinse off a spoon and when I turned around I noticed half of my soup decorating the walls. I screamed for Anthony and we spent a good 15 minutes removing curried orange soup from every inch of the countertop. It got everywhere, even in the salt bowl. Afterwards Anthony inquired why I didn’t take pictures for your judgment entertainment. Needless to say, panic had set in and cleaning up was my first priority…sorry for the lack of entertainment.

I’d also like to note that this soup came out majorly spicy. Hence my recommendation to reduce the cayenne pepper. I ended up adding some greek yogurt to mine to cut the heat. Also, this soup is so versatile you can add virtually anything your little heart desires to it. Tonight we are adding roasted red pepper slices and lentils. And by we I mean I’m blogging and Anthony is roasting peppers and cooking lentils…how lucky am I?

On that note, I’m hungry and my awesome husband just placed a big steaming bowl of this awesome soup in front of me for my feasting pleasure…see ya!

Jamie