Carrot and apple soup

Hasn't it been absolutely ICY in Cape Town the last week or so? I don't even feel like cooking in this weather, I just want to get into bed and stay there, but I've been threatening to make a carrot soup for more than a week now, and rather than go out to Woolies in the cold to buy soup, I thought I'd better just bite the bullet and make it.

{Image source: joyosity, flickr}

And boy am I glad that I did!! Let me tell you a bit about this soup. You want something comforting, bright, sweet with a hint of spice, with all sorts of wonderful vitamins to help ward off the winter freeze? Well, you've come to the right place. This soup is (very) loosely based on the delicious looking soup that Browniegirl made a couple of weeks ago. For her wonderful looking and sounding soup, go here. I went so far as to actually write down the recipe (my home printer doesn't work) and look at it for several days, bought a few of the relevant ingredients, and then sorta went my own way. I think I'm pathologically unable to actually follow a recipe to the letter. But anyway, this soup was flavourful, delightfully carrotty without being overwhelming and, well, just the right thing for an icy freezy winter evening!


Comforting Carrot and Apple Soup

Ingredients:
8 large carrots (or about 600-700g), chopped roughly
2 small or 1 large yellow onion, diced
1 apple, diced
Juice of one orange
± 1 litre chicken stock
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp ginger
2 tsps garlic
A splash of muscadel or other sweet wine
2 tsps brown sugar
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp apricot jam


Method:

1. Heat a little oil in a big soup pot, and fry the onion, garlic and ginger until the onion is translucent. If you want to add any other veggies you have lurking around, you can dice them and throw them in. I had yellow patty pans that needed to be used, so I tossed them in, but I don't think they made any difference to the flavour, so I left them off the ingredient list.
2. When the onions are cooked, throw in the carrots and apple, and fry for a bit.
3. Throw in a splash of sweet wine, just to deglaze the pan, and get up all the slightly caramelised bits at the bottom.
4. Cover the veggies with the stock, and bring to the boil. Turn down and simmer for 35-45 minutes, or until the carrots are cooked.
5. When everything is cooked, remove from heat, and blend. I use a stick blender with the soup still in the pot, but some people prefer to transfer in batches to a food processor. I like the control the stick blender gives me, and I give it a good go, as I like my soup smooth and silky.
6. When blended to your liking, return to the hot plate and heat through, adding salt and pepper, and sugar (I say 2 tsp, but just add to taste) and the apricot jam! This may sound weird, but the soup was missing something, and the jam just gave it that little something extra it needed. I used my soon-to-be-mother-in-law's apricot jam, which is smooth and delicious.

{Image source: eightprime, flickr}

Please make this soup, it's not hard work, and it's so rewarding to have a hot cup of delicious soup on these ridiculously cold evenings! (And not that I'm a soccer fan, but who isn't getting a bit excited with all this madness around? So if you're supporting Holland, the bright orange of this soup will go down a treat!)

Enjoy!