Spiced carrot soup

I recently made Sarah B’s big batch golden milk spice blend as a leaving present for a colleague at work. If you haven’t tried making your own golden milk spice blend at home, her recipe is absolutely gorgeous. It’s made with what seems like every spice imaginable: turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, star anise, and coriander. Essentially all the good stuff. What’s nice about her recipe is that it makes a very big batch of golden milk spice blend – 120 servings, to be precise. Which meant that I not only had enough for my colleague’s present, I also had about 5 extra jars to share and to keep!

Although her spice blend is intended for golden milk (a warm turmeric-based drink made with spices, coconut milk, coconut oil, and honey), she mentions at the end of her blog post that it can be used in all kinds of dishes to add “a burst of sunshiny spice that is as good as gold”. Pure poetry (and genius).

The other day I had a rather significant amount of carrots to use up from my organic vegbox delivery. I had a vegan spiced carrot soup on the mind, and I remembered that I had a little jar of my homemade golden milk spice blend in my cupboard. This powerful little spice blend turned a pretty basic carrot soup into something incredible – a fragrant, warming, and wonderfully healthy vegan and gluten free soup. If you don’t have golden milk spice blend to hand or don’t feel like making it yourself, fear not! You can certainly sub in any spice blend (I think a curry spice blend would work really well) that you love.

So here it is, my recipe for a simple spiced carrot soup. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

-xo KA

Spiced carrot soup {vegan & gluten free}

This soup comes together in no time, with only a handful of ingredients. The curry spice mix makes for a truly warming soup, perfect for the chilly fall weather to come. Use a good quality curry spice blend or whatever spice blend you love – I used Sarah B’s big-batch golden milk spice blend, and it worked beautifully.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter or oil (butter, ghee, coconut oil or olive oil will all work well)

• 2 small onions, finely chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, pressed

• 2-3 tsp curry spice mix (I used a homemade golden milk spice blend)

• 10-15 medium carrots, coarsely chopped

• 6 cups | 1.5 L water

• 2 cups | 500 mL unsweetened almond milk

• 1 lemon, juice

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• Toasted sunflower seeds, to finish

• Chopped fresh herbs (like parsley or chives), to finish

Method:

In a large soup pot, heat butter or oil over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until golden, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for another minute until very fragrant. Add the spice blend, cook for a further minute until the spices are toasted and fragrant. Add the carrots, stir to coat in the spices and cook for another two minutes.

Add the water, a good pinch of sea salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the carrots are tender. Remove the pot from heat and stir in the almond milk. Blend the soup until completely smooth using an immersion blender or working in batches with a regular blender. Once blended, stir in the lemon juice and pepper. Taste, and adjust seasonings if needed.

Serve warm, topped with toasted sunflower seeds and fresh herbs, if desired.

Serves 6-8, and will keep in the refrigerator for a few days.