Carrot And Swede Slightly Spiced Soup | Recipe

As part of my healthy kick start in 2015 I have been discovering some recipes here and there from a number of recipe books on how to cook more healthy and notorious foods without them being incredibly boring – something that I find tends to put me off dieting when all I am allowed for lunch is a crisp bread with a bit of cucumber! However, after sampling possibly every diet under the sun, I have come to the conclusion that cooking foods that you find interesting and are your favourite foods, but just cooking them with something altered to a healthier alternative or by cooking your ingredients in a different way, for example roasting instead of frying – something that I’ve started doing a lot recently.

One of my favourite foods to eat in the transition from winter to spring is carrot and coriander soup. An old recipe I found uses chicken stock and fried garlic, onions and fresh chives together before adding carrots and the spices. Carrot and coriander soup, whilst delicious, is quite boring – let’s be honest. So, I have designed a slightly healthier alternative (not that it needs one) to a classic. Tis recipe is enough for about six to eight decent sized portions. Soup is also a good one to start with I feel, as well, because it’s so easy to batch make and either stick in your fridge or freezer for another day!

What will you need?

1 tsp Flora Cuisine Cooking Liquid

2 Spanish onions

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp ground coriander

A handful of fresh coriander

450g carrots

450g swedes

1 large sweet potato

2 litres water

1 Knorr vegetable stockpot

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 | Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees (C). Chop your onions into medium sided chunks. Place them in a large bowl and coat in the Flora Cuisine Cooking Liquid as a healthier alternative with 45% less saturated fats – you can use your fingers. Add in the ground coriander and mix once again. Once they are all covered, tip out and place on an oven tray. Peel the garlic cloves, and place these on the same tray as the onions. Once the oven is at temperature, put the onions and garlic in – roasting off these is a great alternative to frying them. They should take about 15-20 minutes to soften enough and start to caramelise.

2 | Bring enough water to the boil for all your vegetables on a high heat. Once this had started to boil, turn the heat to a medium heat until the water is bubbling at a constant rate. Peel the carrots, swede and sweet potato, and chop into small chunks (whatever shape you like) and throw them all into the boiling water. Dependent on what size of chunk you cut, these could take anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes to go soft enough. I also added some extra veg I had to bulk out the soup a little, as I had 75g of broccoli and cauliflower left from the previous nights dinner.

3 | Once the onions and vegetables are done, drain the water from the vegetables, and add 1 litre of fresh water and the onions and garlic. Using a hand blender, blend the mixture in the saucepan until smooth (it doesn’t matter if there is a few chunks left in at this point as we will need to re-blend later on. Put back on the medium heat and leave for 30 minutes until bubbling. 

In a pestle and mortar, crush together the mustard seeds, black pepper corns, half the ground coriander and the chilli flakes and stir into the soup mixture.

5 | Add another litre of water and blend for about 5-10 minutes until as smooth as you like. Add salt and pepper to taste and then add in the stockpot. If you’re using a stock cube, dissolve in the litre of water by boiling the water before adding to the mixture at the start of this step. Put back on a low heat for about an hour and a half, then add the fresh coriander (as thinly chopped as you prefer) and gently stir in. Leave on the low heat for another 10 minutes and then it’s ready to serve!

Serve with a garnish of either ground or preferably fresh coriander on top.

Or why not add some chilli flakes for extra flavour as a garnish for an extra kick. You could even add two to three teaspoons of chilli flakes with the fresh coriander for a spicier soup.

Happy eating!