Spicy Carrot Soup with Ginger and Lemongrass

This is a nice spicy thick soup.  It’s very spicy, so if you don’t like your food too hot cut back on, or leave out the chilli!

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 thumb size pieces of ginger, grated

2 pints of chicken or vegetarian broth

2 fresh red chilli, finely chopped

1 handful of Thai jasmine rice

2 tsp ground cumin

3 cloves

1 stalk of lemongrass, finely sliced

6 or 7 carrots, chopped.  (Chop them roughly as the soup is pureed later)

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp black soy sauce

Handful fresh coriander, finely chopped

Handful of fresh Thai basil, finely chopped

1 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp sugar

Pour some oil into the bottom of a large pan and heat.  When hot add the onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chili and fry for about a minute then add the broth and bring to the boil.

Once the broth is boiling add the rice, carrots, cumin and cloves, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until the carrots are soft.  If necessary add a little more water to the soup so that the carrots are just covered.

Now carefully puree the soup in a blender in batches.  Be careful as the soup is hot!

Hopefully you now have a nice thick soup mixture.  Return it to the pan and over a medium heat bring back to the simmer.  Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice and sugar.  Taste, if not salty enough add more fish sauce, if too salty add more lime juice.  Simmer slowly for 3 or 4 minutes.

Serve and enjoy.

It’s a great soup on a chilly day.  You can also refrigerate it and reheat as required which is what I do.