Curried Carrot and Coconut Soup

As we all know it’s technically been fall for a few weeks now, although my only indication of its appearance were the hundreds of pumpkin recipes inundating my Instagram and Pinterest feeds. The days have still been relatively hot, I’ve still been rocking stretchy dresses without my legs shivering from the cold and nighttime patio dinners are still very much in existence.

Except in the last couple days, I’ve noticed a swift change in the overall feeling when I go outside. It sounds weird, but it kind of smells like fall from the moment I step outside, and the temperature has dropped dramatically. In fact, I even had to override my drill sergeant husband on the thermostat the other day because it was a frigid 66 degrees in the house – entirely too cold for this warm-blooded girl. I work best at a balmy 72 degrees.

The new shiver in the air is sort of a catch-22 for me, on one hand I’m incredibly sad to see the warm days slowly slip away, but on the other hand, I now officially feel it suitable to share all the soup ideas I’ve been dreaming up in the last couple of months, and that makes me very, very happy.

I’m one of those people that is habitually cold, so I crave soup all year round, even on the hottest of summer days, but during those warm summer days it’s mostly broth-based soups I gravitate towards. In the winter, it’s a different story. I either crave a hearty soup filled with “stuff,” or a super creamy pureed vegetable soup filled with endless flavor. The latter isn’t high on Kevin’s list, so I try to reserve it for myself since I’m perfectly content slurping it up day after day for lunch in between shooting food.

A little while ago when I was in need of a quick lunch with little to nothing in the fridge except carrots and some chicken broth, I ransacked the rest of the pantry and fridge to find the makings of the perfect creamy soup – curried carrot.

The ingredient list is simple with only coconut oil, onion, carrot, red curry paste, chicken stock and light coconut milk, so even I was a little surprised when the finished product was one of the most flavorful soups I’ve made to date. The curry paste isn’t as front and center as the name might imply, but acts as more of a crutch to build a more complex flavor, sort of similar to how tomato paste gives braises and stews a little extra something something that you can’t quite detect.

The onion, carrot and curry paste is first sautéed in a little bit of olive oil and then covered in chicken stock and simmered until the carrots are softened. The entire mixture is then transferred to a blender and pulverized until smooth before it’s moved back to the stove and finished off with a can of light coconut milk (full-fat will work as well).

From start to finish the entire soup takes under 30 minutes to throw together, and with only six ingredients, is definitely going to be something that’s on repeat for me all winter long — and should for you too…

Plus, how gorgeous is that vibrant orange color???