“Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day, and awakens and refines the appetite.” Auguste Escoffier
Well, that is quite a claim. However, a bowl of Madeleine’s Kitchen Super Orange Soup made with Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Oranges, Ginger, & Turmeric served with a chunk of locally baked Sourdough bread will certainly warm you up in this wet and windy weather.
Madeleine’s Kitchen cleverly keep their recipes to themselves but we have found a simple version of carrot soup from Delicious Magazine on line
Ingredients
1 large onion
8 medium-large carrots
Small piece of butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 orange
1 litre vegetable stock or water
Method
Peel the onion, then cut in half. Put the 2 halves, cut side down, on a chopping board and cut each into thin strips. Peel the carrots and cut the ends off. Cut each carrot in half widthways, then lengthways. Put them on the chopping board with the flat sides down, and cut into small pieces.
Put the butter and oil in a saucepan over a low heat, add the sliced onion and cook for 10 minutes. Check and stir the onion regularly. Using a cheese grater, grate the zest off the orange into a small bowl. Add the zest and the carrots to the pan with the onion. Put the lid on and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the stock or water and bring up to a simmer, then put the lid back on the pan and leave to simmer gently. After 45 minutes, test that the carrots are really soft by poking them with a knife or skewer. Turn off the heat.
Carefully ladle the soup into a food processor. Whizz the soup until it is smooth. Cut the orange in half, squeeze the juice from one half and add to the soup.
Return the soup to the pan, heat it gently and taste it. You might like to add a pinch of black pepper or a little chopped fresh coriander, until it tastes just right.
