1/31/11

Monday Recipe: Carrot, Cardamom, and Coconut Soup,

One of my favorite food blogs  is Evil Shenanigans. My fav recipe so far is her Carrot, Cardamom, and Coconut Soup.
My friend Christene made it for us for dinner one night, it was the most wonderfully flavored soup I had ever had. I couldn't stop tasting it.

I was well into my second bowl just as others were eating their first. (I was hungry, having skipped dinner to eat there AFTER my running class...I could have died)
this is her picture....this soup is just LOVELY, flat out LOVELY!! So warming and rich....ahh,,,,now I want it! Alas, I'm trying to regulate my blood sugar so I'm laying off the carrots for a while. Altho, perhaps this base recipe with another vegetable I CAN have would work.....maybe spinach? The mind boggles.




Here's her recipe:
 
Carrot, Cardamom and Coconut Soup    Serves 6
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups vegetable stock
1 – 13 ounce can coconut milk
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Fresh mint for garnish

*In a large pot heat the butter over medium heat until it foams.  Add the carrots and onions and cook until they start to soften, about ten minutes.

*Add the garlic, ginger, cardamom, cumin, chili sauce, salt, and pepper.  Cook until the spices are fragrant, about five minutes.

*Add the flour and cook until no dry flour remains, about three minutes.  Slowly, stirring constantly, pour in the vegetable broth.  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, partially cover, and cook for 20 minutes.

*Once reduced puree the mixture in the blender until very smooth.  Pour back into the cooking pot and add the coconut milk, honey and lime juice.  Simmer, uncovered, for ten minutes or until the soup reaches your desired thickness.  Serve with fresh chopped mint.

Her entry  Best of 2010, which is totally worth a read. There is NO unappealing recipe on this blog, to me. Not a one. This is one truly one of the best recipe blogs online, in my opinion. I LOVE her inventive and delectable dishes! Go check her out! NOW!!

5 comments:

SewSister said...

If you're trying to regulate your blood sugar, get rid of the grains in your diet. Bread, pasta, cereals all boost your glucose levels and send your body on a roller coaster just as a chocolate bar would.

"All carbohydrates are are long sugar chains, so by eating them your blood sugar will raise. The fact that it is a complex carb and not a simple carb (table sugar) means that your blood sugar will go up slower and stay higher longer then with plain table sugar where it will go up really fast and come down really fast. Regular pasta and whole grain pasta are the same in that sense, the reason you are eating whole grain pasta is that it has fiber in it which will help slow down the grain pasta's digestion and make the sugar rise take longer, making it a better alternative for diabetics, but in the end of the day, the sugar will still go up, it will just take a little longer than it would with the regular pasta."

My husband and I have been grain free since the beginning of December and the difference is fantastic!

Jacki said...

:) thanks! my trainer says the same thing, so I don't eat that stuff. My main problem (the biggest) is going too long between snacks and meals. I *always* forget to snack. And, I haven't been eating before my long runs and that causes problems, altho eating before runs causes OTHER problems. It's a juggling act for sure!

BendingPins.com said...

I don't know if you're familiar with the "Paleo Diet" -- really, it's a way of living. You never exercise more than 20 minutes per day, 5 days per week but you should give up grains, dairy, sugar and salt. It's not easy in this day and age! This way of life is fairly flexible in that some include cheeses (fermented dairy). Other restricted foods are peanuts (because they contain fungus and are technically a legume, legumes (of course) and some people exclude night shades though we eat tomatoes and peppers.

BendingPins.com said...

Oh, I forgot to mention, many paleo lifestylists only eat 2 meals a day, no snacks whatsoever! Never, never over exercise, this stresses your body (and mind) which triggers the releases cortisol into your blood stream (as does stress) which is nasty. Have a read: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cortisol/

Jacki said...

:) thank you, yes, I'm very familiar with paleo! (it seems to be the trend around here...lol) Maybe one day when I can go more than 3 hrs w/o eating, I can consider practicing intermittent fasting, but unfortunately for me right now that's not possible. I look forward to reaping the benefits in the future. I prefer to exercise frequently: I was a yoga instructor in a previous life, and I now enjoy running (and races! love the races!). I really like reading the PaNu blog, and I was just doing my menu planning by looking for ideas on the health bent web site. :) Thanks for your ideas, information, and suggestions! I appreciate your thoughtfulness and taking the time to respond!

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