Carrot & Ginger Soup

Hurray! I'm being unseasonal again.  I don't know why, but I've suddenly got a yen for making soups.  I should be enjoying summery salads and delicately grilled pieces of fish, but...no.  Hearty, autumnal soups all the way. 

This is a brilliant recipe - it's simple to make and cheap as well, relying mostly on store cupboard ingredients.

You need (serves 2):

500g carrots, scrubbed (don't bother peeling - they're going to get blended later and nobody will ever know)
1 Onion
Olive Oil
Honey
Curry Powder
Ginger (dried powder is fine)
500ml stock
100ml single cream

Firstly, chop your carrots into lengths and your onion into quarters, and spread out on a baking tray.  Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables until lightly coated.  Dot a couple of teaspoonfuls of honey over as well, and then dust everything with a good shaking of ginger and curry powder.
Stick the tray in a low oven and roast for an hour.

Take the vegetables out  from the oven and pop into your blender.  I also always swill the roasting pan round with some water or stock to make sure I get all the yummy sticky bits that have crusted themselves onto the pan during cooking.  Add your stock, and blend everything until smooth.

When you want to serve the soup, gently reheat on a low flame and add the cream just before serving.  You might also want to add some salt and pepper - although, if you're using stock from a stock cube, you won't need any additional salt.  I used a homemade stock from our duck carcass (hello duck! You're still around!) so a pinch of salt worked nicely.

Serve and enjoy feeling unseasonal too.