Vegan Chipotle Carrot & Coriander Soup

Vegan Chipotle Carrot & Coriander Soup

Soups are so comforting, warming and simple. Served with a lovely lump of bread there are few things that can make me feel more like I'm being hugged from the inside than than a big old mug of warmness. As someone who is vegetarian and dairy free, soup in a can is not really something that I can get down with because even when it's veggie, nine times out ten, they put milk all up in it. But that's cool, that's alright, I'll just make my own! Making soup from scratch means that you can miss out the dairy AND all of that extra salt that they use to store it for ages.

This carrot and coriander soup is a spicy little number inspired by the jalapeño pickled carrots that you get in quality Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles. I'm a little bit obsessed with chipotle chilli flakes at the moment and the smokiness is put to great use here.

Vegan Chipotle Carrot & Coriander Soup

Serves 2

Ingredients

500g carrots, peeled & chopped
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp chipotle chilli flakes
2 tbsp soy margarine
1 clove garlic crushed
600g vegetable broth
2 tbsp almond milk

1. Dry roast the cilantro seeds and chilli flakes in the bottom of your sauce pan for 1 or 2 minutes or until you can smell them. Once toasted, remove from heat, and crush in a pestle and mortar.
2. Add margarine to the saucepan along with chopped carrots, garlic and all the coriander seeds. Stir everything around until everything is evenly coated, then cook on a low heat until carrots begin to soften - 10 mins or so. 
3. Add the vegetable stock and season to taste with salt and pepper, before bringing to a boil.
4. Reduce to a simmer, cover and let cook for another 15 mins until everything is tender. Remove from heat and liquidise with a hand blender or food processor. To finish, return to heat and stir in almond milk. Dish up and eat.

Vegan Recipe: Easy Watercress & Potato Soup

Vegan Watercress Soup

I adore watercress. It's got such a unique combination of spicy bitterness and is such a versatile green. Delicious for salads but hearty enough to stand up to a bit of cooking. No to mention that it's generally pretty cheap, available almost year round and has some nutritional vitals that are out of this world. Yes and Yum.  

I grabbed a bag the other day and whipped up this tasty bowl of soup that would have served two, it I hadn't eaten it all!

Vegan Recipe: Easy Watercress & Potato Soup

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/4 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp vegan margarine
500 ml vegetable stock
4-5 small potatoes chopped (with or without skins is up to you I generally go with skins)
100 g watercress
2 tbsp almond milk

Instructions

1. Saute onion and garlic in margarine on low/medium heat until onions are soft.
2. Add coarsely chopped potatoes and stock to pan, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover for about 10 minutes or until the the potatoes fall off the fork when you give them a poke.
3. When the potatoes are soft, add the watercress to the pan and stir until the leaves wilt into the spuds. 
4. Add the almond milk and stir for another minute or so.
5. Remove pan from heat and blend mixture into a soup using a hand blender or tabletop blender.
6. Once smooth, return to heat and stir for another minute or so before serving.
7. Grab some bowls and dig in.

Freestylin'...Mostly Minestrone

Just a little something I whipped up!

This is a recipe that I whipped up on the fly because I was too lazy to go to the shop! I had a can of butter beans and a can of tomatoes so I thought why not make some magic?

I've only started making soup recently but I'm really getting into it. They're really hard to get wrong and the result is something that you can have as a starter, a main or a lunch on the go. If you've never tried it making soup from scratch I thoroughly recommend it. You cut down on lots of the salt and grease in prepacked soups and it's a really good way to make use of vegetable leftovers.  So all you get is the goodness.

This is mostly inspired by what I had to hand but looking at it it's pretty similar to a long standing soup standard, but because there's no pasta or rice, I'm calling this....

Mostly Minestrone

Ingredients

• 1/4  onion , slice
• 1 celery sticks, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large chestnut mushrooms
• 1/2 sweet red pepper
• 300ml vegetable stock
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 400g can butter or cannellini beans
• 1 tsp of all spice
• 1 cup spinach

Just to note, I would have put garlic in it, but I didn't have any! If you do, go for it, it should only make it better.

The business

1. Grab a nice big pot and saute the onions, mushrooms, celery, and red pepper in the olive oil.  Let everything simmer unitl soft, should be about 10 minutes.


2. Get your beans out! Pour a little bit of the juice into the oniony stuff to get them sizzling and keep some more of the bean juice to one side for later to use as a thickener.   Pour the drained beans into the pot with the onions.  Let it all simmer for another 5 minutes or so.


3. Stir in the tomatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 mins.


4. This is a great time to get in there with the spoon and season your soup. This is when you add the all spice and pepper. If you're like me and like your soup with a little bit of zing, just tip in a bit of balsamic vinegar. And finally if your soup needs thickening, add a little bit of the starchy bean juice.


5. Now to finish, just plate up and add a handful of coarsly chopped spinach to the top.

And there you have it - healthy vegan minestrone type thing. I put my own stamp on it.  I'm sure you can too. Happy Munching!