Carrot Peanut Soup with Indian Flavors

This is a soup I made based on a recipe I saw on the D.C. Foodies blog. (To see the original recipe click here.) I was looking for something using both carrots and peanuts that wasn't too sweet. This seemed to fit the bill, with a flavor base of leek, garlic, ginger, cumin and coriander. The major adjustments I made were to reduce the amount of carrots for a thinner soup and to omit the coconut milk as I thought this would make it too sweet for my taste. The end result was a smooth soup of mild sweetness with Indian flavors. I wanted to have cornbread with this soup, but it's summer, it's the South, and southern summers and hot ovens don't mix. So I came up with a surprisingly good recipe for gluten free crock pot cornbread that I'll share in my next post.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter

1 leek, white part only, washed and chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 Tablespoons chopped ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3/4 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped

4 cups chicken stock (homemade or low-sodium)

1/4 cup chunky peanut butter

lime wedges and cilantro for garnish

Method:

Saute the leek, garlic, and ginger over medium heat until slightly browned. Add the cumin and coriander and saute until aromatic. Add the stock, pepper and carrots and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until carrots are tender. Add peanut butter, stirring well, and return to a boil then turn off the heat. Allow to cool, then blend with an immersion blender, a regular blender or pass through a food mill. Serve hot, passing lime and cilantro at the table.