Irish Carrot Soup

When the weather starts to get colder, nothing warms you up like a nice bowl of soup at lunch. Soups are easy to make, and you save money making it from scratch rather than buying it from a bistro everyday at lunch. You can also control the sodium, as many canned soups are loaded with it. I like to make a big batch on Sunday evenings, and then package it up in containers to take to work for lunches. You can make it a full meal by washing up some greens for a side salad, a quick balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a nice crusty roll for dipping.

Irish Carrot Soup is a super simple soup to make, that uses many things you'll have in your fridge already.

4 tbsp. butter
2 medium onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 large carrots, chopped
2 medium potatoes, chopped
900 ml carton of chicken broth
2 cups of milk
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt & pepper to taste

You'll notice that this soup contains carrots celery and onions. This is what the French call a mire-poix. It is the base of many soups, stews and sauces.

Chop the carrots, onions and celery into similar size pieces.

In a large saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter.

Add the onion, celery and carrots. Crush the garlic right into the pot. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in the potatoes and thyme and give it a stir. I used the leaves off of a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, but dried thyme works well too.

Add the chicken broth, stir and then let it simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Now that veggies are boiled in the broth, we are ready to puree everything. If you have a larger food processor you can do it all at once, or use a hand blender right in the pot.

I only have this little 1 1/2 cup food processor. Its was only $7 at Canadian Tire, and it does the job, you just have to do it in a couple of batches. Considering how little space it takes up in my itty bitty apartment kitchen, I'm not complaining.

Return the puree to the pot. You should have a nice smooth texture.

Add the milk, and then season with salt and pepper. Don't be afraid to add in enough salt and pepper, it really does help bring out the flavours. Give it a stir and then heat it up again for serving.

And there you have it! A simple, healthy soup that you can make at home. It makes roughly 8 portions, at just under 140 calories each. Serve with a nice piece of crusty bread and a small side salad and you'll have yourself a great meal!

 

You can also find this recipe on Tasty Kitchen

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