A warm hot bowl of soup on a cold cold winter day. That's not just happiness but comfort, love and fuzziness. This week has been cold and is only going to get colder this coming weekend. In a strange way I am also kind of looking forward to experiencing -18 degrees again.

While running yesterday I kept on complaining how cold it was in my head. All I really wanted was to finish my 7 miles and gulp down a hot bowl of soup. I had made up my mind to buy a packet of soup but I guess my ego came in the way and I decided to use my ridiculously simple recipe.

I looked in the fridge and there were lots of carrots and leftover butternut squash and so the decision was kind of made for me. I ended up making carrot, ginger and butternut squash soup..



Ingredients:

1. 3 Carrots
2. 1.5 cups of butternut squash
3. 1 Onion
3. Fresh ginger
4. A few rosemary sprigs
5. Salt and pepper as per taste
6. 1 tsp Sriracha sauce
7. 0.5 cup Milk
8. 4 Garlic Pods
9. Olive oil
10. Paprika Powder
11. Balsamic Vinegar


This is how I made it:

1. I peeled carrots and butternut squash and chopped it in all possible weird shapes
2. I chopped onions in largish chunks. I wouldn't recommend slicing as it gets too watery
3. Minced 4 garlic pods
4. I lined a baking tray with foil and greased it (I drop 2-3 drops of oil in a tissue paper and then rub it on the foil)
5. I placed all the cut vegetables in a ziploc pack and sprinkled a teaspoon of oil, salt and pepper and then tossed them together (This removes unwanted drizzling of oil on the vegetables and also salt and pepper are mixed)

6. Once done, I lined the vegetables on the baking tray and sprinkled a few drops of balsamic vinegar (Can use any) and then roasted them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees
8. The vegetables had nice tan lines here and there and then I blended them all together in the mixer
9. I poured the mixture in a deep pan and added chicken broth (1 cup) and once it started boiling I added 0.5 cup of milk, a sprigs of rosemary and water to adjust my consistency, 1 TSP of Sriracha sauce
Optional: You can add cream here to give it make it rich but I make my soup thick (by using less water) so don't really use cream
10. You can either grate fresh ginger or use powder to the soup
11. Remember to stir for 2 minutes and then switch off the gas. Garnish with spring onion and serve with butter

Next time I will buy fresh baguette to go with it. Sounds lovely in my head.
Let me know how it turns out...
Ciao..