Carrot & ginger soup

My favorite homemade soup[1], and yet another recipe from my mom’s archives.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped (~6 cups)
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 4 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1½ tbsp fresh ginger root

Optional: ½ cup whipping cream.
(I leave it out; I’d rather get my cream-based calories through desserts, and I like the pure carrot-and-ginger flavor.)

For vegan soup, use coconut oil and vegetable stock instead of butter and chicken stock.

Steps

1. Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add carrot, onion, bay leaf, and ginger. Fry just until the vegetables get a bit of color, about 3 minutes. (No need to finely chop the carrot and onion or dice the ginger; it will all get mixed up in the blender anyway.)
2. Add chicken stock and water and bring to a boil. Simmer on low until carrots are tender, about 15 minutes.
3. Pour into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

The chef says to return the soup to the saucepan to heat it up again and serve in heated bowls, but I just pour it directly into my bowl and microwave if needed.

Notes

[1] I’ve decided to stop titling every recipe “The Best $THING” because you’ll think I’m exaggerating if I call everything the best. So just know that I wanted to call this “The Best Carrot Soup,” but I restrained myself. 😛

[2] Sadly this Toronto restaurant is no longer in business. In looking it up for this post, I found this interesting writeup on all the different places named The Frog and Peach and where the name came from: everything2.com/title/The+Frog+and+Peach.