Purple Carrot and Ginger Soup

There they were, nestled among the usual suspects, purple Dutch carrots. I am drawn to vivid colours; they make me happy, and beautifully coloured, heirloom variety vegetables make me feel delighted, kind of like a cat being presented with a ball of aluminium foil; "ooh....shiny.."

I bought a few bunches last winter for roasting with cumin seeds, very tasty but....eh, I had made it already. I also didn’t realise how special they are.

According to this article, these lovely little roots have an added benefit of being extremely high in anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are antioxidants that create the red/purple pigments in blueberries and raspberries and are 28 times more present in purple carrots than in the traditional orange variety.  They are also a great source of fibre and have anti-inflammatory properties. Since blueberries aren’t in season at the moment, this could fast become my super food of choice!

So, healthy stuff aside, let’s talk aesthetics; I wanted to find a dish that would really make the purple pop. A dish that people would wonder if it was going to taste the way they would expect it to.

A dish that sat up and screamed; “HI THERE, I AM PURPLE! FANCY THAT”?

I chose to feature these purple sticks of healthy dynamite in a soup for a few reasons; coming into the chillier months, soup is the dish of choice and according to this Wikipedia article  “only 3% of the β-carotene in raw carrots is released during digestion: this can be improved to 39% by pulping, cooking and adding cooking oil.” Plus, imagine curling up on the couch with your warm Ugg boots on and peering into a steaming bowl of purple soup? To me, just writing about it is enough to put a smile on my face.

So, without further ado, I give you:

Purple Carrot and Ginger Soup

Adapted from "Soups" by Murdoch Books


750ml or 3 cups of good vegetable stock
1 tbs of oil - I used Canola
1 large onion, diced
1 tbs of freshly grated ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 kg of purple dutch carrots, chopped - if you cant find these, normal carrots will be fine. 
Approx 1 tbs of coriander roots and stalks
Approx 2 tbs of chopped coriander leaves, reserve some for garnish
dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream (optional)

1. Bring stock to the boil in a saucepan.
2. Using another , heavy based pot, heat the oil  over a medium heat.
3. Add the onion, ginger, cumin, coriander root and stem and cook for about 3 min or until the onion has softened.
4. Add in the stock and carrots. Bring to the boil and then reduced heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the carrot is tender.
5. Ladles the soup into a blender or food processor and blend in batches until smooth. I used a stick blender and this was fine too.
6. Return blended soup back into pot, add a little water or stock if desired
7. Stir in the coriander leaves and season to taste
8. Top with a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream if desired and sprinkle with remaining coriander leaves.