Spiced Carrot & Coconut Soup

With the amount of eating over the last 7 days, I’ve been craving some simple vegetable dishes.

I had half a loaf of Blackwoods Bakeries focaccia from the weekend and my parents had just given me a big bag of carrots. What started off as a pauper’s dinner got fancy real quick. Don’t let the carrots full* fool you. This is a rich and satisfying soup.

*Edit: Wow, genuine Freudian slip.

Dinner for 2 or a starter for 4.

Ingredients
5 carrots
3/4 can coconut cream
3 cups stock (I used chicken but use vegetable if vegetarian)
1 teaspoon green curry paste (check if vegetarian)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sage garnish 

*Use vegetable stock if you want to make this vegan or vegetarian

Preparation

1. Chop the ends off the carrots and cut into bite sized rounds. I didn’t see any point in peeling these ones, it’s up to you.
2. In a large pot, quickly brown the carrots in olive oil. Add the green curry paste and stir through.
3. Add stock, bring to boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes until carrots have softened. Add coconut cream.
4. Remove from heat and blend with a stick blender.
5. Taste and season with salt if required. I found my stock was salty enough but fresh ground pepper is a nice addition. Plate up and garnish with sage leaves.

Toast. Yes. Toast.

I’m not taking the piss. I’ve never made toast like this before so I thought it would be fair to assume that you might not have done toast like this before either. They’re super crunchy and reminded me of chips. Really good with soup.

Focaccia Toast

Ingredients
Half a loaf of leftover bread. I used focaccia, but any rustic loaf will do.
3 tablespoons lemon infused oil. I used avocado oil. In a pinch, you could use olive oil with lemon zest.

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Slice the bread as thin as you can. I got mine between 5-10mm per slice. Stale bread is ideal for cutting thin slices.
3. Drizzle the oil onto a baking sheet.
4. Brush both sides of each slice of bread onto the oil. Arrange in a single layer and bake until golden. Keep a careful eye on these so they do not burn.
5. Crunch with soup.