Homerun....Carrot Soup and Roasted Califlower and Curry Soup

My base veggie soup has been so versitile for me that it will always be a staple of my diet. Making it on a regular basis has become such a habit, that I admit, I haven't taken advantage of the variety of other vegetables available for making soup with.

One reason is, I make and use my own chicken stock, a very rich stock that is like "gold" in my freezer. I use 4-6 lbs of chicken bones to make 2 1/2 quarts of stock, and I didn't want to waste such rich stock making big batches of soup. But now, I make a "lite" chicken stock in my pressure cooker....I can get 3 quarts of chicken stock from the bones of one chicken,(or one turkey neck and back!), in about one hours time. I can have homemade chicken stock, at the ready, anytime, with minimal effort....I love my freakin' pressure cooker, lol!

I will be posting directions on how I make my own chicken stock BOTH ways soon!

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Carrot Soup

2 lbs carrots
4-6 cups stock

Peel and cut carrots into 1 inch chunks. Bring chicken stock and carrots to a boil, turn down heat and cook until soft, (about 25-35 min.)

2 tbl. butter
large onion
garlic, 1-2 cloves crushed
2 tbl. almond butter (I used Trader Joes, raw/unsalted)

While carrots are cooking, saute onions in butter until soft adding garlic in the last minute of cooking. Turn off heat add almond butter, stir to combine. (Or you can add the almond butter at the blending stage...it doesn't matter since you're not "cooking the almond butter, just adding it)

Once carrots are cooked, combine carrots and stock, with onion/garlic/almond butter mixture in blender, and blend until smooth. If needed, add more stock or water to get the consistency you want.

Until I get an immersion blender, I use a standard blender. The picture above was my first attempt, and if I had a little more stock I would of made it "soupier", this was a little thick for soup, but with a little less stock would make a great carrot puree!

I researched many carrot soup recipes, many of them had the common theme of either ginger, curry, or cashews, and many gave the option of using cream/milk/yogurt. Since I don't shop until I absolutey need to, I was out of ginger, and I had been using alot of curry in my cauliflower soup, so I wanted a change, and since I didn't have any nuts, except for pistachios (I could've used those), I decided to use almond butter...I already had that in my pantry! Although, ginger would of been my first choice.

Carrot soup reminded me alot of butternut squash soup, because of it's sweetness, and I wouldn't hesitate a bit to make it again, and/or make it for company.

************************************************************************************* Roasted Cauliflower Curry Soup

1 head cauliflower

Cut in small pieces and roast in the oven (350-400 degrees), tossed with 1-2 tbl. olive oil. While cauliflower is roasting, in a soup pot, saute,

1 large onion
1 tbl. butter or oil

until soft, add garlic (1-2 cloves, crushed) and curry powder (2 tsp.) in the last minute of cooking. Add chicken stock (4 c.) and roasted cauliflower and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Combine mixture in blender when cool enough to handle, blend until smooth. Season with a dash of cayenne pepper and S&P. (picture above shows soup before I blended it, and, I also used the cauliflower leaves, chopped and sauteed with the onion)

Serve with honey drizzled on top or with a handful of raisins, if, like me, you like those "sweet, spicey" flavors together....try it!

Life is good.....and soup is so damn good, and good for you, lol!