Now that the days are getting colder I have a hankering to have soup for lunch on a regular basis. There’s nothing like a good steaming hot bowl of soup to warm you up from the inside out, especially when it’s accompanied with a generous smattering of crispy well-seasoned croutons, so this curried carrot soup really hits the mark for me.

This recipe came about because I had a lot of carrots in the fridge that I needed to use up and I thought they’d be a good base for a soup. Carrots are naturally very sweet though, so I realised they’d need something robust as a seasoning to counteract the taste of the natural sugars, a role which curry spices fulfil very well.

One question I get asked all the time is what low FODMAP stock I use because a lot of the stock cubes which are on the supermarket shelves contain onion and/or garlic. Some people who eat a low FODMAP diet can find that their systems are okay with a small amount of onion and garlic, such as the quantity found in stock cubes. However, others cannot tolerate it in their diets at all. There are a couple of options if you’re very sensitive to onion or garlic though.

The first is Massel ‘s Vegetable Stock Cubes which are completely free of onion or garlic. I’ve tried this stock and it’s quite nice and it certainly does the job well. The second option is Casa de Sante’s low FODMAP Vegetable Stock Powder which is my preferred choice because I like the background herbiness it brings to meals. It’s also officially certified by FODMAP Friendly. If you’d like, you can buy either of these options online by clicking on the names of the products.

Like all soups, this curried carrot soup is incredibly easy to make because it requires nothing more than preparing your vegetables and chucking them into a stock pot along with the other ingredients. After I’d simmered my soup long enough to cook the carrots and potato I used my food processor to blend it into a smooth soup, but if you don’t have a food processor or a Nutribullet you could just grate the carrots and potato before you put them in the soup pot and have a chunkier soup. It’d be delicious either way!

This curried carrot soup is tasty, nutritious and very warming. It’s an excellent option for lunch or even as a light dinner during the autumn and winter months and is enhanced by being scattered with the crispy little salt and pepper croutons. It’s the perfect antidote to the approaching winter.

Ingredients:

450g carrots (peeled and cut into small pieces)

1 potato (peeled and diced)

1.2 litres of vegetable stock (I use Casa de Sante’s low FODMAP Vegetable Stock Powder)

1 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/4 tsp dried thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

For the croutons:

6 slices of gluten-free bread

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

2 tbsps vegetable oil

Method:

Prepare your vegetables as directed.

Place a large stock pot over a medium-high heat and put all of your ingredients into it. Leave it to simmer until the vegetables are tender.

While the soup is simmering make the croutons by cutting the bread into small cubes and placing them in a hot frying pan. Drizzle the oil over the top of the bread and season with the salt and pepper before continually moving the croutons around the pan to ensure they toast evenly. Once they’re crispy remove them from the oven and keep them warm in a low temperature oven.

Using caution because the soup will be very hot, in small batches ladle some of the soup into your food processor or Nutribullet and blend until smooth. (Exercise caution when unscrewing the top of your Nutribullet because pressure will have built up inside due to the heat of the soup, so covering it with a tea towel before opening it would be highly advised.)

Once you’ve blended all of the soup serve it with the croutons.

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