Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Curry Carrot Soup

Hey guys! Today I'm sharing my recipe for Curry Carrot Soup! This soup is super easy to put together and perfect for a fall day.

This soup is a variation on one of the first savory things I ever tried to cook when I moved out of my parents' house to go to college at age 17. About 6 months prior, my dear friend, Katie, had me over for a graduation get-together and her mom prepared us some delicious carrot and cream cheese soup. Man, it was good. My 16-year-old brain was like, "I guess I probably will need to feed myself in 6 months or so. I'll get the recipe!" And get the recipe I did.

Fast forward to my first week living on my own. 17-year-old me was feeling real grown up. I had gone to the store, bought ingredients, and set about to cook. Things were going pretty swimmingly until the smoke detector started going off. "Oh shit!" said 17-year-old Becca. I grabbed a towel and started fanning it at the smoke detector to try to get it to stop, and when that failed I figured out how to take the batteries out.

Guys, the whole things confused me because NOTHING WAS ON FIRE! Well, as I returned to the kitchen, I noticed a burning plastic smell. Wellllllll, looks like I had accidentally turned on an extra burner. On top of that burner? My roommate's coffee maker.

Yea, so guys, my first time cooking on my own I melted a coffee maker and ruined a burner. Ruined it. Moral of the story: we all start somewhere!

Anyway, as years passed, and I began to become competent in the kitchen, I made that soup many times. Without burning anything, thank you very much! But as I became more experienced in the kitchen, I started playing around with the recipe, and that's when I ended up with Curry Carrot Soup! The addition of curry spices in this soup take it from something tasty, to something really complex and interesting.

Story time aside, let's make some soup!
Curry Carrot Soup- Makes 5 large servings or 10 small servings

Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 3 cups of carrots chopped into 1/4"-1/2" rounds (from about 8 large carrots)
- 1 1/2 tbsp curry powder. I used a pre-made blend, but you could totally use your own if you wanted to! 
- 6 cups vegetable broth. You could use less here for a thicker soup. You can also totally use chicken broth if that's what you have on hand.
- Salt and pepper
- 4 oz cream cheese
- Cayenne to taste
1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sautee until it begins to brown.
2. Add the carrots and the curry powder and sautee for 1 more minute.
3. Add the broth, give it a good stir, and add salt and pepper to taste. I used a very liberal pinch of each.
4. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the carrots are tender and come apart easily.
5. Remove the soup from the heat and add the cream cheese. Stir it in for a bit to soften it up. I will spare you the picture of what it looks like when it's well mixed. It's not pretty. But hey, guess what! We're gonna fix that.
6. Grab your trusty stick blender and puree that soup! 

Ok, ok, you can also put it in a stand blender, but stick blenders are so awesome. Is it weird that it's kind of my goal to have one (or more!) of you guys buy one and tell me how awesome it is and how it's changed your life in the kitchen? Yea, I guess that is kind of weird... Sigh.
7. Once your soup is super smooth and awesomely pureed, give it a taste! It should be prettttttty awesome, but I found mine needed more pepper and the smallest pinch of cayenne to give it some extra heat.

If you add more seasoning, just be sure to do a couple of quick pulses with your blender to combine.
8. Soup's up!

Oh man, I was so pumped when I finally finished cooking that I dove right into my bowl. Figuratively, guys, figuratively.

This Curry Carrot Soup is delicious on its own, but who doesn't like bread with their soup? I know I sure do! I happened to have grabbed this gluten free focaccia bread from the farmers market on Sunday and it was delicious with this soup.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed hearing my story of my humble beginnings as a complete mess (and fire hazard) in the kitchen, and I hope even more that you try out this delicious Curry Carrot Soup recipe! It's practically guaranteed to make you feel nice and cozy on a cool fall day.

Til next time!

-Becca
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34 comments:

  1. This looks AMAZING. And so easy! My boyfriend is from an immigrant family, so they make a lot of carrot-type soups and stews and things. I bet he'd really love this! I'm going to try it out.

    Also, you're really making me want that stick blender!

    Elyse @ Cuddly as a Cactus

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    1. Why thank you! Let me know how it turns out!

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  2. Wow this sounds delicious! I love a good carrot soup. Photos are awesome as always. Also, I love your first solo cooking experience story. A friend of mine in college burned MY coffee pot in the same way, lol. Also in the same dorm, we once had a fire alarm at 2am but the security guards couldn't find anything wrong, until they found a whole pan of burnt grilled cheese--outside the kitchen window. Guess some kids had tried to get rid of the evidence. As you said--we all have to start somewhere! :)

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    1. Thanks, Marlene! Oh no! Your friend and I are made after the same mold I guess! I don't blame those kids. I might have done the same!

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  3. Oooh I love that this has cream cheese in it! I bet that it smoothes out the curry flavor really nicely.
    I feel like I keep seeing delicious pumpkin, carrot, and butternut squash recipes everywhere lately and I want to try every last one of them!!! Carrot soup is one of my faves!

    <3 dani
    http://blog.shopdisowned.com

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    1. It totally does! Cream cheese is the best. I hope you get a chance to try some of those tasty recipes soon!

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  4. Curry carrot soup is my favorite! I've never tried cream cheese, though. I'll have to try it next time. When I make it, I always add about 1/2 cup of orange juice. The sweetness really helps bring out the curry flavor.

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    1. Oh what a good tip! I hope you like the addition of cream cheese in yours!

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  5. that's a hilarious story, and you've clearly come a long long way. I've said this before, you're a total kitchen goddess ;) this sounds totally delicious. fall is definitely the time for hot bowls of soup (just made myself a bowl of miso for lunch).

    I didn't burn a coffee pot my first time cooking, but I did rub my eyes while chopping onions... really bad call hahahah

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    1. Juni, make a girl blush why don't ya! Your miso soup sounds tasty! Oh, that's rough. I've accidentally rubbed my eyes after chopping chiles and thinking I had washed my hands thoroughly enough. Oof.

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  6. Yum, that looks positively scrumptious! I've never had carrot and curry, only carrot and coriander soup (and I didn't like that too much). My Mum has a stick blender at home and they are the bee's knees. Maybe I can convince someone to buy me one for Christmas...

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    1. They are totally awesome! I hope you get one for Christmas!

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  7. Yummm! I love all things curry :)

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  8. Haha, I love that story! There are a couple of things in my kitchen that have weird burns on them thanks to inexperienced chefs... The soup looks delicious, and I bet it's the perfect comfort food for cold nights. I love to put spice in everything, so I love the idea of curry soup :) xx

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    1. Oh dear! We all have our kitchen accidents! It is pretty great for a cold night!

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  9. Haha, great story! I probably would have panicked when the alarm started going off and run away. Even though that wouldn't really be an improvement.
    I love soup on cold days, this one looks delicious! I have some frozen soup in my uni house that my dad made (with some sweet potatoes!). Yum!

    Sofie x
    http://littlegreensofie.blogspot.be/

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    1. Ha! If I had done that that story could have taken a serious turn for the worse! That soup sounds delicious!

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  10. I love a good soup no matter what season it is, they are one of my favorite things.

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  11. This looks soooo delicious, Becca! Please make up a batch and I'll be over as soon as it's ready. ;-)

    P.S. Do you remember when you were about 6 years old and the fire department came racing to our house after I stupidly started the oven with a forgotten dishtowel inside (from a bowl of bread dough that'd been rising earlier) and caused a mini fire? Who forgets to take a dishtowel out of their oven before turning it on?! Ahh, we all have our moments . . .

    XO

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    1. Heyyyyyyy! Yes! I totally remember! I remember the guy asked you what your recipe was for dish towels. Funny!!!!

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  12. Replies
    1. Thank you! I love curry, too. Indian food is one of my favorites!

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  13. this looks delish! i am going to make a curried pumpkin soup tomorrow, trying to overload my taste buds with as many pumpkin things as i can this fall.

    so happy i came across your blog :)

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    1. Ooooh, that sounds delicious! I hope it turns out amazingly!

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  14. Mmm...
    I love soup weather and this sounds really good too.

    - I s a @ Head Red + Blondi

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  15. carrot dill soup is my absolute favorite soup in existence!! this looks like a yummy substitute for when i want something just a little bit different. thanks becca!

    ~e~

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  16. Hahaha! Oh, man. What a great first-time-cooking story! The only time I've done anything remotely exciting while cooking was when I set the oven on fire while cooking meringue mushrooms. I panicked and called my mom, paranoid that the oven might be a gas oven and might like... explode and destroy the house.
    But it wasn't. And after turning off the oven, the flames went out and my mushrooms weren't even ruined.
    And this soup looks so good! I don't like carrots, but even I want this!
    xo
    Kristina
    www.eccentricowl.com

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    1. Oh no!!! I'm glad everything was ok! I have had my share of ridiculous kitchen accidents, which I guess is what happens if you are a clumsy lady who also happens to be a cooking enthusiast. Once I even singed off all the tiny hairs on my hand after catching a pan on fire. Sigh.

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  17. To be honest, before I started learning to cook, I burned ramen noodles on the stove! Luckily cooking is something that gets easier with practice! >.< This soup looks amazing though, I'll definitely have to give it a whirl. :)

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