Red Pepper & Carrot Soup

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I love me a blended soup! I could have enjoyed a blended soup everyday for the entire month of January but I thought they might be a little boring for you, and variety is the spice of life.

ingredients for carrot & red pepper soup

There are quite a few reasons why I love blended soups, here are my top 3:

1. They easily conceal ingredients from picky eaters. As long as the overall colour is recognizable and its tasty you’d be surprised how much you can sneak into a dish without someone knowing.

2. They can easily be reinvented. Pasta sauce, flavour base, braising liquid, other soups etc. Not only do they add another layer of flavour but since they consist of mostly blended vegetables they’re a very nutritious flavour base.

3. Easily store and freeze in Ziploc bags. You can do this with most soups but blended soups are actually easier to deal with. I lay them flat on a baking sheet and then they stack really nicely in the freezer.

Carrots are such a tasty, versatile and economical vegetable. I typically add them to just about anything I am making, as they are apart of my holy trinity flavour base - carrots, onions, celery. This dish has a nice layering of flavours, don’t skimp out on the thyme as it adds a nice herbaceous note to the soup.

Carrots are full of the antioxidant beta-carotene- beta-carotene is the precursor to vitamin A. When healthy out bodies can easily convert the one into the other. Often associated with being good for your eyes, thank you their lutein content. They aid in reducing cardiovascular disease and are helpful in the prevention of lung cancer, due to their high beta-carotene content. Carrots also contain vitamin K, fibre, potassium, vitamin C, B-group vitamins, vitamin E, copper, a d phosphorus, AS WELL AS powerful phytonutrients like falcarindiol and falcarinol. These phytonutrients have been shown to reduce cancer risk, particularly colon cancer. Carrots are at their best when eaten raw with an element of fat (carrots & hummus anyone?) as the fat helps with the absorption of their vitamin A.

Easy trick to eat more carrots? Peel and slice you’re carrots then store them in a container with ice cold water. It’ll keep them crisp and easily on hand for snacking.

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 medium parsnips, peeled and chopped

6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp thyme leaves

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 roasted red bell pepper, freshly roasted or from a jar

½ cup cooked white beans

2 tbsp tomato paste

6 cups vegetable broth

Sea salt & Fresh ground pepper

METHOD

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.

Add the onion and season with salt, cook until translucent for about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, celery, parsley, carrots and thyme leaves.

Stir and continue to cook until the carrot edges begin to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the balsamic vinegar, bell pepper, cannellini beans, tomato paste, vegetable broth, salt and pepper.

Simmer until the carrots are tender, 15-20 minutes.

Add the soup to a high speed blender and purée until smooth.

Taste and adjust seasoning.