Keep Calm and Carrot On

“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 

by dietitian student Emily Foster