Summer Carrot Recipes

Carrot and Ginger Soup With Lemon Herb Cream - "A gorgeous delicately flavoured soup"

Ingredients (Serves 4): 600g of carrots peeled and chopped 2 medium onions, peeled and chopped 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed 3 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp powdered ginger 1 tsp medium curry powder 1 ½ litres good stock, chicken or vegetable sea salt and black pepper pared rind of one lemon Lemon herb cream: 1 x 200g crème fraiche finely grated rind of one lemon 2 tsp chopped parsley 2 tsp chopped chives

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the onions and carrots, cook for several minutes, stirring from time to time. Do not brown the vegetables. Then add the garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook for a further minute. Add the stock and lemon strips to the pan, half cover the pan with its lid, and simmer gently for 20 minutes until the carrots are tender. Cool slightly, then liquidise the soup until smooth. Taste and season with sea salt and black pepper. Reheat to serve.

To make the cream, stir all the ingredients together gently, or the crème fraiche will go runny, and then spoon a dollop into the middle of each bowl of soup, garnish with chives or parsley if you wish. Serve with wholemeal crusty bread.

Tips:
This soup freezes well
The carrots give the soup a lovely sweetness, so children really like it. Good for part of the 5-a-day!
It is quite a filling soup, so you could serve it for lunch as a snack meal with cheese and fruit afterwards