Autumnal spiced roasted carrot and sweet potato soup

My dad always says that Autumn is his favourite month; he loves the changing colours and the chilly crisp mornings. I love Autumn as well – my reasons are the same as my Dad’s (I am the girl with a scarf obsession so what better excuse is there than a season of frosty mornings to buy more scarves?!) but I also love nothing better than the feeling homemade soup gives you after a long walk with hubby and pooch – it is one of the best comfort foods and is so so easy to make. All you need to do is cook some veg and blend it all up in a liquidiser. What could be simpler?!

Picture the scene; you come home with mud all over your walking boots from powering over 10 miles of The Peak District, face numb from the cold, legs stiff from all the uphill walking; you pop the cork on a bottle of red wine, set this soup to cook, have a hot shower and then come back downstairs in your comfiest trackies to enjoy a bowl of soup in front of your favourite box set (box set of choice at the moment Chez Joesbury is Bones by the way). Sunday evening heaven.

Sounds good, right? So here’s the soup recipe – the cold, muddy walk is optional, the hot shower and the wine, however, are a must!

What you’ll need:

3 medium – large sized carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1l chicken stock (made from 1 vegetable stock cube and one chicken stock cube)

2 small red onions, sliced

1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 tsp curry powder

2 tsp hot paprika

2tsp coriander (dried or fresh is fine)

1 tsp turmeric

1tsp garam masala

3 tbsp oil (sunflower/rapeseed/olive oil are all fine)

Salt and pepper to season

Crème fraiche to serve

How to make it:

Pre-heat your oven to 200°C and place the carrots and sweet potatoes into a roasting tin. Drizzle 2tbsp of your chosen oil over the vegetables and then season the vegetables with the herbs and spices. Mix the veg around to coat them well with the seasoning, and then pop the tray in the oven for about 30mins (give the veg a shake half way through so they don’t stick to the tray)

Whilst the vegetables are cooking, heat the remaining 1tbsp oil in a large saucepan and add the onions and garlic. Cook on a medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onion becomes translucent – this should take around 10 minutes. Add the chicken stock and simmer away for about another 10 minutes.

When the vegetables are done roasting, get them out of the oven and let them rest for a couple of minutes before tipping them carefully into the stock and onion saucepan. Give the whole lot a good stir and simmer for a further 2 – 3 mins before tipping the contents of the saucepan into a liquidiser. Blend until smooth (you can also do this with a hand blender if you don’t have a liquidiser) and season to taste. Adjust the seasoning as preferred and serve with a swirl of crème fraiche, some chopped coriander and freshly ground black pepper…oh and some nice crusty bread of course!

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Enjoy!

R x