“Don’t forget to eat your veggies!” – This is something I’m
always telling my family and friends - being the health nut I am! However, I
have to admit it can be difficult to eat the recommended serving of fruits and veggies daily. I usually
snack on raw veggies throughout the day and always add a side of cooked vegetables
to my evening meal. But still, it can be hard to get all those servings in and,
admittedly, I’m getting a little bored with my typical “go to” choices.
It’s not surprising, then, that I’ve been on a quest this
week to find some (different) ways to incorporate veggies into my daily diet.
Since the weather is chilly, I decided to make hearty vegetable
soup….. and since I had a 3lbs bag of carrots sitting on my counter… a carrot
soup was the logical choice.
There are a ton of carrot soup recipes out there, but I love
to experiment with cooking so I came up with my own creation. A lot of recipes
combine carrot and ginger so I did just that. I also wanted the soup to be
hearty and satisfying and a source of protein, so of course beans had to make
an appearance in this recipe! What resulted was a tasty (and extremely
“carroty”) Ginger Carrot Bean soup! Here are a few nutritional benefits of carrot,
ginger and beans!
Carrot
- Rich source of several antioxidants, for example
beta-carotene
- Excellent source of vitamin A
- Source of many minerals, such as copper, calcium,
potassium, manganese and phosphorus
Beans
- Low glycemic index (meaning that it rises blood sugar
levels only slightly)
- High in protein and fibre
Ginger
- Great source of antioxidants
- Anti-inflammatory effects
- Very effective in lessening symptoms of gastrointestinal
distress
Here's the Recipe!
Ginger Carrot Soup
with White Beans
Ingredients
- 3lbs carrots, chopped
- 2 x 19oz cans white beans, rinsed
- 10 mushrooms, slices
- 1/3 cup ginger, sliced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 litre vegetable stock, reduced sodium
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Seasoning: Salt, Pepper, Paprika, Tumeric, Basil and Ground
Cloves
Directions:
1.
Add chopped ginger, onion and garlic to large
pot with oil and sauté for several minutes. Add the chopped carrot, stock and
enough water to cover the carrots. Cook until the carrots are soft. Once
carrots are soft, add the beans.
2.
Once carrots are soft enough, remove pot from
stove and blend soup with an emersion blender/hand blender.
3.
Place soup back on heat and season with as much
or as little of the seaoning spices. (I used a lot of paprika and turmeric and
just a sprinkle of cloves and basil)
4.
Saute mushrooms in some butter or oil and
garnish soup.
Serve and Enjoy 
