szechwan carrot soup

Usually, we don't have soup very often in the summertime, but I decided on making this carrot soup after bringing a three pound bag of baby carrots home from the store and then asking myself what I was going to do with that many carrots.

It's not a heavy or starchy soup so it's an okay soup for summer.

Szechwan Carrot Soup
1 medium onion
2 stalks celery
1 pound carrots
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups chicken broth
1 clove garlic,minced
1 Tbsp minced fresh or candied ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp.black pepper
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. peanut butter
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 cup milk

Dice the onion, celery and carrots and saute in olive oil until vegetables are tender.

Add chicken broth, minced garlic and ginger. Add the cayenne and black pepper. Simmer until vegetables start turning mushy.

Stir in soy sauce, peanut butter, sugar, sesame oil, and milk.

Turn off heat. Using an immersion blender, puree to desired consistency. I like to leave a few chunky pieces.

Reheat a bit if necessary but don't let it boil.

Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream on top of each bowl.

This recipe came from a blog I enjoy reading,   The Art of Doing Stuff.

It's written by a Canadian lady named Karen who is always, always doing something interesting...from making her own bacon to laying a kitchen floor to digging up her front yard for a vegetable garden.

I did make a few small changes to her recipe (using cayenne instead of red pepper flakes - adding the carrots earlier and the garlic later and so forth).

We like it spicy hot and but you could always cut back on  the cayenne and ginger if you want to tame it down some.

It freezes just fine, too. Just remember not to boil when reheating later.