Coriander and coconut carrot soup

Sometimes a few simple ingredients fall together under one's fingertips and a magical type of gathering occurs. I had carrots, the homegrown-flavoured almost musky sort. A colleague had a while ago mentioned making coriander and carrot soup. What pricked my culinary ears was the realisation that I also had a bit of coconut milk in the fridge. Oh my.

Olive oil
1/2 small onion, minced
1" piece of ginger, peeled and minced
2 - 3 fine slices of red chilli, minced
4 - 5 medium sized carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tsp paprika
1/8th cup coconut milk
1/8th of a lemon
3 - 4 cups good vegetable stock
Bundle of coriander leaves, chopped

Heat up the olive oil in a pan over a gentle heat. Add in the onion, ginger and chilli, stir, and leave to softly sizzle. Cover pan with lid.

Once the onion has turned a little translucent, add the carrot. Sauté gently for a bit, then add the paprika and leave for a minute or two. (This spice works really quite well here.)

The carrot should now be a little softened. Pour in the vegetable stock (reserve some if you're not sure how thin you may want the soup to be), and bring to a simmer. Gently cook for a few more minutes, taking care not to overcook the carrot to mush.

Pour in coconut milk, and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Stir in fresh coriander.

Now remove the pan from the heat, let cool a bit, and then whip out your handy immersion blender. Purée the contents of the pan to soup, adding more vegetable stock if required to desired consistency and carrottyness.

Adjust lemon juice to taste now that everything's been mixed up together. This should be offsetting the sweetness of the carrot and onion rather nicely, and giving the dish a hint of Thai flavour.

Serve up with a little drizzle of coconut milk and a few coriander leaves to make it pretty. Or forget, and just tuck in and enjoy.