Carrot-Curry-Coconut-Cold Soup

Atlanta is currently suffering from nearly record breaking heat. It was, no lie, 87 degrees out when I got to work at 9 AM this morning. I think the day clocked in around 95 degrees, which was not a record high temp for this day, currently held by June 15, 1952 with a temp of 96 degrees.  My usual summer plan of walking Harley-face and running a few miles in the morning to beat the heat, is just not working these days. Alas, I think it is time to quit the hot soups for a few months. This is my first foray into cold soups, so hopefully it goes well, or else it will just be gazpacho and cucumber-mint soup each week until summer ends. Cold soup #1 = Carrot-Curry-Coconut-Cold Soup.

The ingredient list for this baby is pretty small. Just an inch or so of fresh ginger, one sweet onion, a bunch of scallions, 7-10 whole carrots, curry powder, broth of your choosing, coconut milk and a lime.

Start with the ginger.  First cut off its ugly brown skin. Then, get our your trusty box grater or microplane. One of the many themes in my house is, 'Go big or go home' so naturally we have a giant box grater.

Grate the ginger until you have about a tablespoon of it. I found that grating it on an angle worked best, otherwise I ended up with ginger pulp.

Next, chop the onion putting it in the bowl with the ginger.  I had a pretty large vidalia onion today, so I only used half of it, and threw the other half in the delicious tomato-cucumber-onion salad KMS left in my fridge when she was over for World Cup last week. I continued to pick at the salad for the duration of my cook time because it is so delicious.

Next, the scallions.  I don't really appreciate scallions or know what to do with them. Specifically, I don't know which parts are edible and which parts I should throw away. I literally have to ask Brian where to stop cutting them every time we have them, but he was in Kansas (looking for Dorothy) when I made this, so I just had to go on instinct.  I sliced about 1/2 of each scallion, tossing the dark green tops. Throw these in the ginger-onion bowl.

Now, the carrots.  I peeled 7 carrots for my soup. Then I had what I thought was a fantastic idea to use this super cool peeler like thing that actually juliennes carrots. After using this cool tool on about 1/4 of one carrot and throwing carrot slices all over my kitchen, I realized this was a bad idea.

If only MD or CJ were around with the bad idea bears when I realized this. They weren't but Harley-face was. At first he was pretty unsure of the carrot.

Then he realized it was food and wanted it. If you look really closely, you can see his missing teeth, compliments of his aggression towards the doorbell and the fact that the doorknob is always in the way of him getting outside.

After a five minute giggle fest at Harley's new found love affair with carrots, its back to actually slicing the carrots.  I experimented with the most efficient way to cut these up, settling on thin rounds.

Now to cook, heat a large soup pot over medium heat and throw in a bit of olive oil.  Once its hot, throw in the ginger-onion-scallion mix.

Immediately add a hefty portion of curry powder, at least a tablespoon. I also threw in about two teaspoons of garam masala. Add salt and pepper to taste as well.  Stir this all up and cook until the onions are softened, about 5-8 minutes.

Next, add the carrots and broth.  I only added two cups of broth because I didn't want to make more than three servings of soup. If you're making more soup, just add more broth (obvi). Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes or until the carrots are very soft.

Remove from the heat and give it a taste. I thought mine needed more spice, so I threw in more curry powder. Add one can of coconut milk and stir. 

Lastly, get out your trusty stick blender and blend until smooth.  This would likely be delicious not blended, but I was in the mood for soup that actually looked like a beverage. A oddly colored orange beverge. Before seving, garnish with a little fresh lime juice.  I'm intending to eat this cold, but I sampled it while it was hot and it tasted pretty yummy. I think it could go both ways. Enjoy!