Vegan Carrot Ginger Soup

If you ever need the world's easiest soup recipe, I suggest you look no further than this simple but flavorful and delicious vegan carrot ginger soup. I've had variations of this soup at many different places, but this is the first time I've had it where no cream, or butter, or dairy was necessary - which also makes it super low-cal.

I made a big batch of the soup for the vegan lunch I was making for a couple of my work buddies. The lunch also included a few favorites that I've blogged about before; the chickpea burgers, Brussels sprout salad, and the lemon basil tofu with quinoa. 

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs carrots
• 1 golf ball size piece of ginger
• 1 medium onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 2 T real maple syrup
• 4 t vegetable stock paste
• 4 cups of water

1. Dice the onion.

2. Peel and dice the ginger and garlic.

3. Peel and cut your carrots into large chunks. Try to keep them the same size so they cook evenly. I cut them into about 1 1/2 inch chunks.

4. In a large pot, add your olive oil, garlic, and ginger. Cook on medium-high heat until the onions are translucent. Probs about 5 minutes.

5. After 5 minutes, add the carrots, drained can of chickpeas, the water, and the vegetable stock paste. Bring up to a boil, throw the lid on, and cook until carrots are soft, but not mushy. I checked the soup every 5 minutes, for about 15 minutes.

6. Once the carrots are soft. Use the same technique to blending like I used for the curry yam soup with roasted corn. Once the soup is completely blended. Bring back to the pot to reheat until ready to serve.

7. Ladle into a bowl and garnish with a few basil leaves. Voila!

I love this soup. I really can't say much more about it except that it's also super cheap. Two pounds of carrots costs about $2, the chickpeas are $1, the ginger root is under $1 and so are the onions. The soup makes about 10 servings and can store in the freezer for up to two months. It's genius.

Cheers,

Kate