Ras-el-Hanout Carrot Soup

I don’t know about you, but my freezer can be a bit, how shall I put it, vague. A sort of a magical mystery tour through random leftovers, batch cooking frenzies, and veg patch gluts that I froze for ‘safe keeping’ having been unable to use the abundant harvest when it first arrived. The issue is that I’m not very good at cataloguing, so most of the tuppawares remain unlabeled and, a year down the line, their origin is, well, indefinite. It makes getting anything out of the freezer like a foodie pot luck. Which does bring a certain excitement to lockdown suppers.

‘What have we got for supper?’

‘Who knows. Could be curry. Could be stew. Might even be a soup, but I doubt it.’

Still, anything for a bit of unpredictability in these colourless times.

Such were the conversations this week when I pulled what I thought was most likely a soup from the freezer only to discover it was stock. Chicken stock. And, on closer inspection (that is scraping the frozen top with a teaspoon and tasting it), chicken stock from the bones of a bird I had rubbed in ras-el-hanout before roasting. But soup was needed, so I grabbed some bendy carrots that were languishing at the back of the fridge and made this soup.

If you don’t have a flavoured stock to hand, you can just add a little ras-el-hanout powder to the onions as they sweat. I’d suggest one teaspoon to start with, though depending on the brand of spice mix, you might decide to add more as the carrots go in. And do bother with the dukka topping – it really adds interest. You can buy it readymade (like this one), but it’s easy enough to make yourself, in which case try this River Cottage recipe.

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Ras-el-hanout Carrot Soup

Yield: 4Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 35 MinTotal time: 45 MinQuick, simple and full of warmth, this carrot soup is rich and fragrant rather than spicy. Top with nutty dukka for extra crunch.

Ingredients

• 30g butter

• 1 onion, finely sliced

• 1 celery stick, diced

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

• 650g carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

• 500ml ras-el-hanout stock (see intro)

• Dukka, to serve

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low heat, then add the onion, celery and bay with a pinch of salt. Cover and sweat the veg for 10-15 minutes until very soft. Add the garlic and sweat for a further 2 minutes.

2. Tumble the carrots into the mix, pour in the stock and bring to a simmer. Bubble, lid on, for 20 minutes, or until the carrots are soft. Remove from the heat then whizz with a stick blender until smooth and silky. Adjust the seasoning, it can take quite a lot of salt, and add a splash of water if the mix is too thick.

3. Return to the hob to warm through, then ladle into bowls, scatter with a sprinkle of dukka and serve.

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