Often I like to make soup to take to work. On cold days when I'm shivering out in the drizzle supervising children on the playground, the best thing is coming into the staff room to a hot lunch. This creamy soup has no dairy in it, and has a little zing of spice from the chili sauce. The drizzle on top is actually sweet chili sauce, which you can add if you like-it was more for the photo than anything, but was really tasty.
Carrots were on sale this week for only $.50 a pound for a big 5 lb bag, so it only made sense in my quest for a lower grocery bill to buy some and turn them into soup for lunches.With a can of coconut milk and a little chicken broth, it was surprisingly inexpensive to make and tasted incredibly creamy and rich. To cut the calories a little you could use lower fat coconut milk, and to make it dairy free, a bit of oil or margarine would be a great substitute for butter. Still, I could happily eat this soup all week. It's definitely a favorite in my house now.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1 lb carrots, peeled
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
one 14 oz can coconut milk
Thai chili sauce to taste (I used a hot Asian chili sauce-only about 1 tsp!)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In a large pot, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the onions and carrots, and saute, stirring, until softened, for about 15-20 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, coconut milk and a bit of the chili sauce. I use about 1 tsp, but you can go as spicy as you want.
Bring the soup to a gentle boil, before turning the heat down and letting the soup simmer for about 40 minutes until the carrots are very tender. Let cool slightly.
In a blender, puree the soup until smooth. Pour back into a clean pot and heat gently until warm. Serve garnished with a little chopped fresh cilantro, and sweet Thai chili sauce drizzled over top, if you like.
Adapted from Bon Appetit
