I do most of my blogging from my laptop at the dining room table, which is just off the kitchen near the glass doors leading to our backyard. I love sitting here with a nice big cup of hot coffee. I'm able to look out and watch the girls playing (either inside the house or outside in the yard), I can keep tabs on the puppy, and I also love the view.
We don't live right in town, but we don't live out in the country either, so my backyard is surrounded by Birch trees and Alder bushes (not the ocean or the mountains). It's not a spectacular view, but it makes me happy. It's very peaceful here. The leaves are starting to turn and scatter across my yard, and the crispness of fall is in the air. Soon the snow will fall, and the cold Alaskan weather will leave us craving warm temperatures and hearty hot meals.
This Curried Carrot soup is one of my favorite (meatless) hearty hot meals. I use adzuki beans to make it extra filling and creamy. Adzuki beans are small red beans that can be substituted for pinto or larger red beans in recipes. You can purchase adzuki beans online through Vitacost or Amazon, or if you're shopping locally in the Anchorage area they can be found at Natural Pantry.
This recipe is actually not a new one, it's been on my website for quite a while. Unfortunately it was getting overlooked because the food photography was so bad (I'm not kidding... the old picture of this soup was really bad, and didn't leave you wanting to have a bowl of it!). I don't know about you, but when I look at the bowl of soup below (it's a new picture), I'd really like to eat it! Especially with a nice hearty bread roll!
Curried Carrot Soup Recipe:
Yields 6 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
32 ounces chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegan)
2 cups water
2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon sea salt (see recipe note below)
1 tablespoon honey (or coconut nectar for vegan)
1 ½ pounds organic carrots, peeled and chopped
¾ cup cooked adzuki beans (if they are canned, no salt/low sodium would be best)
¼ - ⅓ cup canned coconut milk
- In a large dutch oven, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until golden brown.
- Add the garlic, broth, water, curry powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt, sweetener of choice, carrots and adzuki beans. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 20 - 25 minutes.
- Puree using an immersion blender until the soup is smooth.
- Stir in the coconut milk and taste. Season with more sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Megan's Recipe Notes:
- I use Penzey Sweet Yellow Curry Powder. It isn't very hot, and it has excellent flavor.
- Pacific Natural Foods is the brand of the broth I use. If you use another brand, you might want to cut back on the amount of sea salt used in the recipe until after you puree the soup. Then taste and decide how much sea salt you'd like. Remember you can always add salt, but you can't remove it once it's been added.
Enjoy!
xoxo
Megan
Ricki says
This looks and sounds soooooo good! Of course any soup with the heavenly trio of carrot, adzukis and coconut milk can't be bad! (Oh, and forgot curry!) 🙂 Thanks so much for this wonderful entry to the SOS Challenge this month!
Megan @ MAID in Alaska says
Thanks, Ricki! 🙂 Thanks for hosting another challenge!
Kim - Affairs of Living says
How wonderful! I'm so glad you enjoyed the beans, and way to go on trying something new! This soup looks wonderful, so many of my favorite flavors. I bet it so awfully cold up there (75 mph wind?!), so good call with the soup. Thanks for another great submission! xo
pilgrimscottage says
Adzuki beans are my favorite beans. Soups are also a favorite. Would love to see those Northern Lights! Alaska looks like a beautiful place from photos I've seen of it. Stay warm!
Megan @ MAID in Alaska says
Thanks, Kim!Pilgrimscottage, you'll have to come visit sometime! Nothing beats the beauty of Alaska! 🙂
Erla says
Hi my name is Erla and I just recently found your blog. I also have psoriasis arthritis, according to my doctor. It's been fun to read your blog, specially about ways to cope with arthritis. Your blog gives me hope that with the right diet it's possible to live a fairly pain-free live.
Megan @ MAID in Alaska says
Hi Erla! I'm glad you found my blog. 🙂 My life isn't completely pain free, but my pain/swelling/aches/pains are manageable thanks to my diet. I wish you the best in finding some relief!!
Linda says
I'm really jealous about the northern lights. I've never been to Alaska, but I'm sure I would enjoy a visit. Your soup looks delicious. I've never had adzuki beans before either. I'd love for you to submit this to the Go Ahead Honey carnival.
Megan @ MAID in Alaska says
Thanks, Linda. I just sent you an email! I think you would love Alaska. It's so beautiful here. Where do you live? 🙂
Janeen Herr says
I plan to make your recipe this coming week, but I have to make the comment that you "advertise" this as a vegan recipe but then add the chicken broth into the writing. I know it states either vegetable or chicken broth, but if you are writing a vegan recipe you have to leave chicken broth out!. I do enjoy your postings and do not want you to feel I am critizing you unfairly, sometimes it is just overlooked...I love a fresh grating of nutmeg over the top of my curried carrot soup when I serve it too.
Megan says
Hi Janeen,
Thank you for leaving me a comment. You'll have to let me know how you like the soup.
As for listing my recipe as vegan and then mentioning chicken broth - I like giving people choices and appealing to both audiences (vegan and non-vegan), especially considering I have a wide variety of followers and Allergy Free Alaska is not known as a vegan blog. It's true many of my recipes are vegan, or can be made vegan, but again, that's why I like giving people choices. It appeals to a wider audience that way. I'm sure you can understand and appreciate that.
🙂 Megan
Davina Spafford Stuart says
ooh another use for adzuki beans.. yay.. i've got a bag of them I need to cook and mash and do stuff with... (13 year old wants adzuki bean buns.. so i'm going to try...) nice to have a secondary recipe for them if that doesn't turn out well 🙂
Alyssa (@alyssarimmer) says
Megan, this looks and sounds amazing. Creamy, curried, carrot soup? I would say that's the perfect hearty meal to warm us up on those cold Vermont nights (and that weather will be here before we know it!). Can't wait to try it. Definitely pinning this to my Seriously Delicious Soups board 🙂
keryn says
Thank you so much for the recipe. I didn't have enough carrots so I used a combo of sweet potato and carrot, delicious! I look forward to trying out more of your recipes:)
Megan says
Hi Keryn, the addition of the sweet potatoes sounds wonderful! Thanks for the tip - very glad you liked it!
Hugs,
Megan