Carrot Apple Ginger Soup

Not much shouts FALL to me more than a good soup.  Make that soup creamy and full of vegetables and I'm one happy gal!  I have quite the collection of soups and this is another one to go in the box!

This thick and creamy carrot soup is robust and doesn't have a drop of cream in it -- but you wouldn't know it by tasting it!  Its rich taste leaves you cleaning your bowl with another slice of bread and then going and dirtying your bowl all over again.  After a few trial runs, we decided that frozen carrots were more "reliable" with their sweet taste.  If you have a bag of raw carrots you KNOW are sweet, go ahead and use those instead if you have the time to peel and chop them, but if not, enjoy the ease of frozen!

I got the base recipe from Angela, and as I have a tendency to do, I did some minor tweaking to please my taste buds.  But I'll tell ya what - the changes to this were minimal! I upped/added some spices and played with the proportions of the onion and apple, but that's it!

This soup is so easy and the taste is just wonderful.  Carrots with tart granny smith apples with a subtle hints of cinnamon and nutmeg to balance out the ginger!  Oh yes....so good!   It makes a ton, so serve to a large group or do what I did and freeze the leftovers for a cold night when cooking is less than appealing!

Carrot Apple Ginger Soup
 Serves 6 (9 cups)

Active time: 20 Minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Total time: 50 minutes

Serving suggestions: For a lighter dinner, serve with some crusty bread and hearty green salad.   For a bigger dinner, use this as a starter or alongside a main dish.

What you’ll need:

• 1 TBLS olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp powdered ginger OR 2 TBLS grated fresh
• 2 cups peeled and chopped Granny Smith apples
• 1.5 lbs or 6 cups frozen carrot "coins"
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

What you’ll do:

• Heat oil in large stockpot and sauté onion and garlic about 5 minutes (and ginger if using fresh).
• Add the carrots and apples and ginger and stir for a few minutes.
• Add broth, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
• Add nutmeg and cinnamon and cumin.
• Using a submersion blender (or carefully with a blender in batches), puree the soup until creamy

Crockpot – covered on high for 4 hours