CARROT & COCONUT

I knocked up this soup earlier on today because I had a bit of veg left hanging around and knew it would be wasted if I didn't do something with it. According to my wife Sue, it's the best tasting so far.

Ingredients:

• A dozen smallish Carrots (sliced)
• 4 Medium Potatoes (cubed)
• 1 Large Red Onion (finely chopped)
• 400ml Coconut Milk
• 2 Vegetable Stock Cubes

Method:

While you're preparing the veg, have a kettle of water coming to the boil for the stock. Place your finely chopped onions into a pan with three tablespoons of butter or oil and cook on a low heat for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring regularly until softened but not browned. Then add the carrots and potatoes and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Pour your boiling water from the kettle into a measuring jug containing the 2 stock-cubes. One and a half pints will be enough. Stir to dissolve the cubes and then pour it all into the pan. Stir in the coconut milk, bring the pan to boil then reduce the heat to allow the soup to simmer for around 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Stir occasionally and make sure it's simmering and not boiling!

Note: Personally, I prefer to cook carrots on their own and for a little longer than the rest of the veg. They seem to take longer to cook than everything else. Before blending, I scooped out around half of the carrots and then returned them to the pan after blending. This gives some "texture" to the soup and in my opinion makes it look a whole lot better than a fully blended soup. Your choice!

When ready, transfer the contents of the pan to a blending machine and blend to purée the soup. I actually used a hand-blender in the pan itself. If you choose this method, just be careful not to scald yourself!

Season to taste with salt and pepper.