You all know how much I love Lyn Genet-Recitas and her book The Plan. I have posted about it often and have been feeling the need to need to give my body a break and what better way than with carrot soup. I had stopped taking my Omega 3 supplements months ago because I have been so “reactive” to fish. I thought I would give it another whirl for two weeks to see if it made a difference or not. Now I must admit my body has not been in a purely “friendly” state for testing the supplements, but I can say that the scale has steadily climbed and they might just be the culprits. I quit taking them again today and will wait and see what happens over the next few days….interesting?? 

So, this brings me to today’s recipe. I have made the Carrot Ginger Soup from The Plan many times, in fact I’ve had it so much that I am a little tired of it. Although it is good, I never really loved it. I think the problem is that the recipe doesn’t give much direction in the form of how much of each spice to add. I am not great at figuring things like this out and don’t write down how much I added as I am often trying to add a bit more of this or that to tweak the flavour.   The result is that I ended up with a different flavour every time I make it and even when it is really good, I can’t seem to match it the next time. So, I decided to go in search of a recipe that was similar, but perhaps more thorough or with a splash of something different. I had to be careful because I need this to remain a “friendly” food that can be a great alternative for the recipe I had.

This is a picture of Lily’s soup from Big Bang Studio.

Roasted Carrot Soup with Apple:

I found this awesome sounding recipe at Big Bang Studio and decided to see if it would serve both of my purposes – provide the same nutritional value and be outrageously delicious, as claimed in the post. I have to start by saying that this soup was “souper” easy to make and it is my absolute new favourite ~ unfortunately I’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to see if the rest of my body likes it as much as my taste buds….it is in fact outrageously delicious as claimed!! I followed the recipe quite closely, but made a few minor changes.  Here’s Lily’s recipe with the few changes I made.

Ingredients:

olive oil
salt and pepper
Jumbo bag of  baby carrots (I used just under two pounds of regular sized organic carrots and chopped them in about 3″ chunks and halved the shaft if it seemed too big)
1/2 zucchini cut into thick chunks (I added this because my recipe from The Plan had zucchini in it and I wanted to keep it as close as possible).
1 MacIntosh apple
1 good-sized sweet onion, diced (Maui, Vidalia, or Walla Walla)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
2 32 oz. cartons of good chicken stock
few sprigs of thyme
curry powder
orange juice (optional)
cream (optional)

In roasting dish: Mix a little olive oil and salt and pepper over the carrots, apple and zucchini. Roast on the middle rack for 1 hour at 400 degrees, tossing once if you remember. You seriously could stop here. The roasted carrot, zucchini and apple was unbelievable. I will be making my next roasted veggie dish exactly this way.

In large stock pot, sauté the onion,  garlic and fresh ginger. Place the onion mixture and the roasted veggies in a food processor or blender. Don’t over process into mush. (I actually used my little manual processor so mine ended up being very finely chopped, but not puréed) .

Add the chicken stock to the large stock pot you used for the onions and turn the temperature to medium.  Throw a few sprigs of thyme in and a dash of good curry powder. (I couldn’t find fresh Thyme, so I used some ground Thyme that I had at home). Stir occasionally, letting soup thicken and the flavours ripen. Add a splash of orange juice if your carrots aren’t sweet enough. Just before serving, add a cup or two of cream if you like. I didn’t want to add the cream to the base and it was very good without, although I am guessing it would be over the top with the cream. However, I absolutely couldn’t resist giving my freshly made Crème Fraîche a try. I added a blob to my bowl of soup an stirred it in . They must serve this soup in heaven. I am sure of it! 

Serve hot. For an A+ presentation: in each bowl add a wee swirl of cream, sour cream, Greek yogurt or Crème Fraîche with a crack of black pepper, and a leaf or sprig of whatever live herb you have on hand. Crusty rustic bread is a must. Enjoy!

Comparing the Two Soups:

The Plan recipe calls for carrots, zucchini, onion, garlic, raw ginger, cinnamon, cumin, onion powder, pepper and water.

This recipe also contains carrots, zucchini, onion, garlic, pepper and raw ginger. However, it also has an apple, chicken stock and a few different spices. The other possible issue in terms of being “cleanse worthy” is that the veggies are roasted. Although The Plan recommends roasted vegetables for other meals, I am not sure if it alters the “state” of the soup and thus may impact its effectiveness.

So here is my summary – Who cares?  This soup is to die for, I absolutely loved it. Having said that, it would be so sweet if I were able to get similar results to that of Lyn’s recipe from The Plan.  Here’s to being hopeful that I pass the scale test tomorrow a.m.! Be careful with the cream as that is where the danger is. It really is very good without it, so you may want to omit the cream from your shopping list on purpose, so you won’t be tempted. I ‘m doomed. I have a full jar of Crème Fraîche in my fridge and I already made the mistake of testing it in the soup. Most likely a big mistake ~ it was so good! Let me know what you think of the soup. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as I have. (I made it for dinner, but have already had 3 small bowls – I hope it last until dinner time!)

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