Creamy Carrot Soup

You look in your fridge and you see that you haven't used your carrots. What am I going to make? - Yet another smoothie or something else.

How about something else :) With Spring finally here and Bunnies all around, well the Easter Bunny and Easter not too far away that is - and with my girls loving to munch on raw carrots - why not make, a simple and quick soup.

If you're wondering if your little ones will eat this well heres what my girls did. Carys ate 4 bowls of the soup & Seren in her innocence said, "Mammy bunnies eat carrots, not carrot soup!" and ate 2 spoons full - well at least she tried it right :)

 Creamy Carrot Soup.

 12 good sized carrots

1 Large Onion

1 Stick of Butter

1 stem of fresh Rosemary

3/4 of  the carton of Half & Half 

(Or if you want it creamier, use Heavy Cream)

1 large Carton Chicken Broth

Salt and Pepper

Dash or two of Curry Powder

Clean & Peel the Carrots, then chop & dice carrots 

& Onion.

Using a large stock pot, melt the stick of butter

 &

 add carrots, Onion, Rosemary, Salt and Pepper.

Allow the melted butter to coat the veggies

Then add the chicken broth

Make sure the broth covers all of the veggies.

Bring to the boil.

Once the soup has come to a boil, remove the Rosemary & discard.

Turn heat down to a simmer & cook until the carrots are soft.

Next, add some dashes of Curry Powder

Then blend using a immersion hand blender

 Or

 Remove from heat & use a regular blender, until till smooth and you have

 NO LUMPS. 

Add the Half & Half

(Or heavy cream if you're using that)

Give it a quick Blend.

Give it a taste test and add more S&P if needed.

Serve with some freshly made Homemade Bread & an Arugula & Spinach Salad.

Creamy Carrot Soup

DELISH.

 

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Creamy Carrot & Rutabaga Soup

The colder weather is here, and so it's time to make yummy vegetable soup.

A couple of Sunday's ago, I made Mashed carrots and Rutabaga ( For those in my home country Wales, we call Rutabaga - Swede) with our Sunday Pork Roast Dinner. I'd forgotten how tasty and sweet it was. The rutabaga / Swede is what my mother would give us with our Sunday Chicken Dinner, when I was growing up, although I didn't like it very much! But, oh how my taste buds have changed over the years.

So that got me thinking, that if I liked carrots and Swede/rutabaga mashed, how 'More' yummy I could make it in a soup.

The next trip to the grocery store, I picked up the necessary veggies and dashed home excited to make this soup. I had no recipe to follow, just my taste buds to lead me in the right way.

Here is what I used:

1 Carton of Chicken Broth 

( I normally make my own broth, from chicken bones, but we had Pork the day before)

1 Large Tablespoon of Chicken Bouillon.

1 large Rutabaga

1 small sweet cooking pumpkin

1 small bag organic carrots

3 Yams

2 medium sized onions.

1 stick of butter

1 1/2 Tsp Garam Masala Spice

1 - 6.8 fl.oz carton of  Kara UHT Natural Coconut Cream 

( I got this from Walmart by the Chinese section)

8 cups of Water.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

The first thing I did was to scoop out the inside of the pumpkin, place the 2 halfs of the pumpkins in a shallow oven proof dish with a cup of water, drizzle pumpkins with a little olive oil and sea salt and bake till golden brown and soft.

While the pumpkin is cooking, it's time to get peeling and chopping the veggies into  small chunks.

Now as I was chopping, I had a little helper named, Carys, climb up to give her taste test on all the veggies. Her favorite was the Raw Rutabaga !!! Who'd of thought she'd like that, so I guessed if she liked it raw, she'd surely like the soup.

So after snapping the cute photo shoot. It was back to cooking.

Add your butter to a deep saucepan, with your onions.

Once the butter has melted, add all the veggies and give them a quick stir, coating them in the butter. Next add all the chicken stock. You need to cover all of the veggies, so if your short use some water to top it off.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a medium heat and simmer, until all the veggies are soft.

Check on the pumpkins, if they're ready to take out and cool.

Once the veggies have been cooking a while and they're nearly soft enough, spoon out the cooked pumpkin into the soup and stir.

Time to taste and then add  1 large spoon of the chicken bouillon, and stir well.

Now using an immersion hand blender, blend the soup till every piece of veggie is blended. You will find the soup will become thick, so you can start to add 1 cup of water.

Now add the coconut cream and blend.

Now I wanted my soup to be thinner, so I added 7 more cups of water.

Next add your Garam Masala spice, salt and pepper and blend. 

Then you have a 

Hearty Creamy Carrot & Rutabaga Soup.

( Or as my darling Lil tinker Seren, calls it Orange Soup)

Then the test is in the tasting right? 

 Right.

Carys certainly tucked into her soup.

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Easy Meatballs For Dinner

Sweet & Savory Meatballs.

If you're looking for an easy meal for dinner, then try these yummy meatballs.

These are not your usual meatballs, which are normally served in an all savory sauce, also made with ground beef. Mine is made with Ground Turkey and my Sauce is sweet, yet it has a hint of tartness and what's more, it's creamy too.

What more can a girl ask for...oh wait Chocolate! Lol

(That can be for dessert)

Here is what you will need to make

 Sweet & Savory Meatballs

1 lbs of  Ground Turkey

1 large Onion

1 cup of Breadcrumbs

2 heaped Tablespoons of Italian Seasoning

Salt & Pepper

1 cup of Grape Jelly (for those in the UK - Jam)

2 cups of Ketchup

1 can of diced Tomatoes

1/3 cup of Milk

1/4 cup Heavy Cream

2oz of Low Fat Cream Cheese

Heat your oven to 425 Deg

Whizz up your bread to make Breadcrumbs

I already whizzed my onion into small cubes.

Add you breadcrumbs to the ground turkey

Add the Seasonings and Milk

Add Olive Oil into a frying pan & heat

Gather up some of the meatball mixture and form into a ball (1lb of turkey makes 16)

Then place them into the hot oil. You're just going to quickly brown them off.

Once browned, place in an oven proof dish & pop in the oven for a good 20 minutes.

Now while they are cooking you're going to make your sauce.

Add your jelly, ketchup & tomatoes to your pan.

Add some extra Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Give it a quick stir and heat.

Heat until the jelly has melted

Next add the cream cheese and stir until it melts

Next add your heavy cream, now don't worry if the sauce looks like there's streaks of white from the cream cheese, you're going to take an immersion blender & give it a really good whizz.

This is how it will look once youv'e finished Whizzing, nice and creamy...Mmm

Taste test now, make sure its to your liking, if needed add more salt and pepper.

By now the meatballs will be done.

Add the meatballs to your sauce & stir carefully, you don't want to break your yummy meatballs.

Heat through.

Serve with some Jasmine Rice and freshly steamed Green Beans, Brocoli & Carrots.

Mmmm...So Good.

And before you know it, you'll be scooping up some more to enjoy.

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