Tony Jackman’s lightly curried carrot soup with coconut cream. (Photo: Tony Jackman)
Carrot soup. It doesn’t sound all that appealing. But think about a carrot cake: that shouldn’t work, right? And we all know it does.
And carrot soup, made with this recipe, works just as well, in its own way.
One thing a carrot soup has in common with a carrot cake is sweetness. Carrots are sweet; they’re arguably the sweetest of all vegetables. And that sweetness plays magically with the curry spices to create a delicious soup, especially when finished with coconut cream.
Coconut cream, by the way, is the perfect solution if you want a creamy soup without dairy cream in it. As long as you’re happy that it does have that coconut flavour. Luckily, coconut matches or complements many things.
I decided to curry it the way I do a butternut soup. Half a teaspoon each of some of my favourite curry spices, including chilli powder. My favourite spices happen to be cumin, turmeric, coriander, fennel, and cardamom, all of which were finely ground.
I also used a handful of dried curry leaves. I like the way these very dry, paper-thin leaves turn almost to dust in your hands when you crumble them in your fingers and they fall into the pot. When the soup is blended later, all that remains of them is their flavour.
The final herb, as is often the case, was coriander leaves, or cilantro if you live in Chicago.
And binding it all together, of course, was a can of coconut cream. There’s little point in using milk, which gives you some mild coconut flavour but no body. Coconut cream gives you more coconut flavour, and plenty of body to make this into a substantial soup.
Tony’s curried carrot and ginger coconut soup
(Makes about 4 x 250ml servings)
Ingredients
2 medium onions, chopped
3 Tbsp butter
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3cm fresh ginger, peeled and grated
6 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp each of ground fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom seeds, and turmeric
Handful of dried curry leaves — crumbled
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 x 400ml can coconut cream
4 Tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
Coriander-butter croutons (see below)
For the butter and coriander croutons:
2 slices slightly stale white bread
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground coarse black pepper
Method
Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a heavy pot big enough to make the entire soup in. Peel and slice the onions and simmer them in the melted butter. Peel and chop/grate the garlic and ginger and add to the pot.
Cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring now and then.
Peel and slice the carrots and add them. Cook for 5 minutes on a gentle heat, for the carrots to take on the flavour of the onion and garlic and for their own sweet flavours to develop.
Add the stock and stir. Add all the spices including the crumbled dried curry leaves and stir again.
Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes or until the carrots have softened. Stir now and then.
Blend the soup with a stick blender or run it through a food processor and return it to the pot.
Add the coconut cream and stir well. Season with salt and black pepper and return to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
For the croutons, slice the bread into small squares and chop the coriander leaves finely. In a pan, melt the butter, add the croutons and, over a moderate heat, fry them, tossing, until golden on all sides. Add the coriander, season with salt and black pepper, stir the croutons through the leaves, and reserve.
Reheat the soup and ladle into bowls, garnished with croutons and coriander. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.