Roasted Carrot & Ginger Soup

Happy St. Patty's Day!  Normally I love to be corny and festive, but this week has been so busy, I barely remembered what day it was today and sadly I don't think you'll find an ounce of green in this post!

My focus today was of the orange variety ~ carrot orange! I always ask for carrots in my organics order, but for some reason, I just can't seem to get them used up before they go bad. I don't mind carrots, but I don't love them. A few years ago when I was on Weight Watchers, I ate so many raw carrots that one day I thought I'd be sick if I ever ate another one!! Why I order them, I have no idea. I think it stems from my childhood ~ I grew up in a family that ate meat, potatoes and veggies most nights. Carrots and corn were two popular veggies and for some reason I feel that I always need to have them on hand.

I caught a glimpse of the carrots in my crisper this morning and decided that tonight would be the perfect evening for a roasted carrot soup. I've never made a carrot soup before and I  had no idea how it would turn out, but I started pulling things out of the fridge and decided to wing it and I'm happy to report that I did good :-)

Roasted Carrot & Ginger Soup
4 c carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 sweet onion, cut into chunks
2 cloves of garlic
1 - 1.5 tsp fresh ginger grated
1.5 - 2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted (your favourite oil will work)
1.5 c vegetable broth
1.5 c water
pepper to taste

Heat oven to 400.  Grease a large baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.

Add carrots, potato, onion and garlic into a large mixing bowl.

Add oil and 1 tsp of sea salt and mix well. Spread veggies out onto baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes making sure to flip about halfway through.

Before roasting.

After roasting (you know how I love my carmelized veggies - the best & only way to eat 'em!)

Once the veggies are done cooking add them to a blender, together with the vegetable broth, water and ginger. Blend the soup until it is smooth. You might have to do this in a couple of batches. As you may recall, I am still using my Magic Bullet for all blending jobs - it worked, but I wish it would have pureed the soup a little smoother. I think a blender will work best for this. 

Once all of the soup has been blended, pour it into a medium-sized sauce pan and heat it on medium heat until the soup is heated through. I need to warn you to be careful because mine boiled in great big huge bubbles that got some serious air. I ended up with some orange splatters on my shirt!

Add additional salt and pepper to taste. I added close to another teaspoon of salt, but as you know I am a lover of the salt shaker, so you might not need as much.

Serve and enjoy.

This might be my favourite way to eat carrots! I am surprised at just how much I enjoyed this soup. I am planning to take the leftovers with me for lunch tomorrow and I suspect it might be one of those soups that tastes even better the next day.

I hope you have a wonderful evening. If you are out at the local pub celebrating....I wish I were with you!! But alas, I'm not, so make sure you have a green beer for me!!

Cheers,

Andrea