A Bowl Full of Comfort (aka: The Birth of Carrot Ginger Curry Soup)

This one is for my friend and fellow foodie Walt, who was the first person who popped into my head that knew I *had* to share this recipe with :)

As many of you know, I spend my weekdays jetting all over kingdom come for IBM, and the two things that sustain me while spending all that time away from home are getting to sample into some pretty amazing restaurants while on the road and working with amazing folks like Walt and others (you know who you are!) who are not only colleagues but friends, too. I'm blessed to work with some of the smartest & greatest folks around...It's good to be an IBMer!!  And now...on to the food!

This soup was a meal born out of necessity: I needed an inexpensive meal that could bring some serious comfort to my family & I when Grandpa (whom you all know is the love of my life!) was convalescing.  It sustained all of us through some trying times & I have a feeling will now take center stage and replace the butternut squash soup that's the favorite in my family.  I'll forever associate this soup with my G'MoE Shirley (short for "Grandma on Earth") because it gave us the strength & nourishment we needed so we could be strong & nourishing for Grandpa.  Here's Nonno Mario & G'MoE at Christmas...Aren't they a couple of lookers??

The soup starts with tons of carrots. I highly recommend grabbing organic carrots at your market...at many stores, they're typically the same price as regular ones (or maybe a whopping 10 cents more per pound) but, like apples, they absorb more pesticides than most other fruits & veggies so they're worth making the switch.

Cutting the carrots on the diagonal gives them a larger surface area, which means more room for caramelization while cooking...and makes you feel like a fancy-pants gourmet chef too ;)

Get the oven preheated to 400 and grab the largest jelly roll pan you can find. While 3 pounds of carrots may sound like enough to feed Bugs Bunny for a season, trust me, they'll cook down on ya.  Coat with about a tablespoon of fruity olive oil and a sprinkling of fresh thyme, pop them in the oven for about an hour until the edges turn a nice chestnut brown color and the sugars caramelize a bit.  You'll want to stir them after about a half hour to make sure they don't brown too much on the bottom...toasty carrots are good, burnt carrots are no bueno!

While the carrots are cooking, peel about 2" of fresh ginger and grate on a microplane.  The ginger will grate down into a pulp & infuse the base with a gentle heat. Ginger has great anti-inflammatory properties; gotta love something that tastes good & is actually good for you, too!  Make a paste out of the ginger, curry powder and butter and cook it down a little before adding the onion.  Cooking your spices in oil/butter is common in Indian cuisine and infuses the entire dish with even more flavor; check out a GREAT cookbook, 5 Spices, 50 Dishes for some easy techniques you can incorporate into your everyday cooking.

The other big secret to this dish was swapping out some of the stock for Barsotti's Apple Cider.  The trick is to use an unfiltered apple cider that has some pulp to it...It gives the soup a fabulous texture and keeps the sodium to a reasonable level, particularly if you're going to use canned chicken stock.  I've played around with it a bit and I've found that half stock, half cider is just right.

Once everything simmers for a bit, use an immersion blender (or a "boat motor", if you're this guy) to puree the ingredients into a nice, thick soup.  While you can top it with anything you like, I've found that my favorite combo is a quick drizzle of agave nectar, a nice dollop of Greek yogurt for some acidity, and a dash of Chipotle (or Cayenne, if you have a nasty winter cold that you want to kick!)   When you make it...tell me what you top it with! Always on the lookout for interesting combinations. 

Mangia bene, my friends!!