Curried Carrot Tangerine Soup

I awoke this past Saturday morning to a flurry of snowfall. There's something so magical about going to bed with the world looking one way and then waking up with it covered with a thick blanket of ivory. While brewing the coffee, I stood in the kitchen, looking out over the backyards and alley behind the houses on our street. The snowfall had deadened the sound of the traffic and I could only hear the peeping of the birds on the feeder next door.

I love freshly fallen snow. As a child, I would get very upset whenever anyone would walk across the front lawn of our house. I hated to see that perfection - and it was perfect to me - destroyed.

By the time I'd finished my coffee and reached for my camera, people were already out shovelling away.

 

Though the stillness had been broken, a day like this called for something equally simple and soothing.

Curried Carrot Orange Soup

Adapted from Rose Reisman's Art of Living Well

Ingredients

2 tsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp mild curry powder
5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped (about 1 cup)
3½ cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 tsp tangerine zest
½ cup tangerine juice
¼ cup cream or milk (optional) OR a dollop of mascarpone cheese in each bowl
2 tbsp finely chopped green onions, parsley or cilantro (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oil in medium pot over medium low heat. Add onion and sauté until beginning to turn translucent, 3-4 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Stir in curry powder, sautéing for an additional minute.

2. Add carrots, sweet potato and stock. Raise the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer until carrots and sweet potato are tender, about 20 minutes.

3. Purée soup in batches in a blender or in the pot with an immersion blender (which, if you read the Disaster post earlier this week, you've heard all about) until smooth.

4. Stir in zest, juice and cream (if using). Serve in bowls and garnish with mascarpone and additional garnishes.

Serves 4

This soup freezes really well (especially if you don't add the milk in), so freeze leftovers in individual containers to bring for lunch throughout the week.