Carrot and ginger soup

One day, I'm sure I will realise my ambition of regularly being able to linger over lunch during the week and not have to rush back to my desk the minute I've refuelled on whatever quick-to-eat food comes to hand... As that hasn't happened yet, though, for now I just like to make sure that when I do have time to do some proper cooking, I fill the fridge with healthy 'grab and go' lunches that I can eat on the run. Soup falls very nicely into that category, especially if there's homemade bread to go with it, as per my new year's resolution to bake bread of one kind or another every week. Sadly, that's not the case this week - but I do have a big pot of this delicious carrot and ginger soup on the go and I've made the interesting discovery that adding a spoonful of 0% fat creme fraiche to it just before serving it has almost the same transformative effect on the flavour as stirring in a drizzle of olive oil at the end.

I usually make the soup with chicken stock but this week I accidentally used beef stock and the end result was really rich and extra-tasty - but the recipe works well with either. It's lovely in big bowls for lunch, but it's also really good served in small cups (as in the photo) as a light starter.


Carrot and ginger soup

1kg carrots, peeled and sliced
1 litre beef or chicken stock (as usual, I used my favourite Knorr )
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
1 tbsp 0% fat creme fraiche (I used Yeo Valley)
flaked almonds, toasted

Put the carrots in a pan with the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes until very tender. Meanwhile, peel and grate the ginger and add to the pan for the final 5 minutes of cooking time. Drain, keeping the liquid. Whizz in a blender or smoothie maker with about a third of the liquid, then adjust the consistency with as much of the rest as necessary. Swirl in a little creme fraiche and top with toasted almonds.

Serves 4 (or 8 in small cups as a starter)

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