Curried Carrot Soup

This is a simple, yet elegant soup. It's really carrot with a hint of curry so will work nicely with just about any entree you pair it with. The turmeric in the curry powder really gives the soup a nice colour.

The secret with any carrot soup is to really cook the carrots. I see a lot of recipes that suggest you cook the carrots for 20-25 minutes. In my experience that leads to texture problems because the carrots aren't really soft. For soup, I cook carrots as long as they take, often more than an hour.

Recipe

For six servings

1.75 lbs carrots (2 lbs before trimming), chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp mild curry powder
6 cups chicken stock
2 Tsp salt
1 cup heavy cream
minced cilantro for garnish

Melt the butter in a pot large enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the onion and cook over low heat until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the carrots, stock, curry powder and salt. Simmer until carrots are quite tender, about one hour.

Remove from heat and puree in batches. Remember hot liquid in a blender is explosive - make sure you have it set up to relieve pressure. If you are using an immersion blender make sure you don't leave any bits of carrot in the soup.

Wipe out the pot and return pureed soup to pot. When ready to serve, reheat the soup, if needed and add the cream off heat.

Garnish with minced cilantro and serve.