Carrot & Coriander Soup

Soup can be highly nutritious, filling and something to really look forward to on a cold Winter’s night.

Over the last decade or so, soup has had a lot of bad press from the amount of sodium they contain.

Homemade soups will always be far healthier than store-bought ones - you can control the amount of sodium you put in and add anything you’d like. The variation of soups you can make is only limited by your imagination.

One of the best things about homemade soups is that you can make a huge batch and freeze it in portions. If you get home one evening, and feel too tired to cook, grab the frozen soup and heat it up – it's a highly nutritious dinner without any effort.

This recipe for carrot and coriander soup has no fat in it whatsoever. It’s packed with a load of carrots, which are an excellent source of antioxidants and is the richest vegetable source of pro-vitamin A carotenes. If serving 2 people, it will give 150 calories and almost 4 portions of vegetables.


CARROT & CORIANDER SOUP
2-3 servings

Ingredients
600 g (1 ⅓ lb), around 6 medium peeled carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces*
1 small onion, peeled and roughly diced
3 garlic cloves, peeled
4 g (½ t) "better than bouillon"^ stock paste
2 t sugar
Coriander leaves (cilantro), snipped accordingly/to taste
Salt and black pepper to taste

* If you’d like more texture in the soup, reserve 1 ½ carrots and grate (shred). Add the grated (shredded) carrots in step 4.

^ Better than bouillon is a concentrated paste, which you add water to, to make a stock. If this is not available, use stock cubes or ready-made stock instead of water in step 1.

Method
1. Place the carrots, onions, garlic, stock paste and 480 ml (2 c) just boiled water into a large saucepan.

2. Bring the water back to boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

3. Take the pan off the heat, and using a hand blender blend all the ingredients together. Add 360-480 ml (1 ½ - 2 c) water, or more to thin the soup.

4. Stir in coriander leaves (cilantro), and season to taste. Serve hot, enjoy!