Another week, another recipe about to happen. Some might say this is slowly turning to a food blog and I wouldn’t complain if that was the case. But for now, you will see me popping up a recipe here and there, a one I really love like this one. Today I am writing this one here that I like call skin food soup, since it is packed with carotene and therefore amazingly good for your skin and vibrancy. But also, as we love to learn here – healthy doesn’t have to be blunt and boring, as this soup is packed with layers of delicious ingredients.
Beta Carotene is a carotenoid compound responsible for giving fruits and vegetables their beautiful orange pigment. A powerful antioxidant, beta-carotene has been found to help protect against cancer and aging. Therefore if consuming enough foods high in beta-carotene you may result in health body and radiant skin. Beta-carotene rich foods include sweet potatoes, carrots, dark leafy greens, butternut squash, cantaloupe, lettuce, red bell peppers, apricots, broccoli, and peas. There is a whole list on collagen rich foods that are great for your skin in my old post that many, including myself found helpful.
So now, once I promised you a whole bunch of things you will be making this soup asap and you will expect glowing, radiant skin, no? Okay, if that is the case, let’s get started with the recipe that only takes 30-ish minutes to make.
Ingredients list:
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1 large carrot
- 1 large celeriac
- 2 onions or 2 shallots
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsb freshly grated ginger
- 1 tbs cumin
- fresh thyme
- 400ml creamy coconut milk (sometimes I use cashew yogurt)
- water (aprox. 400ml)
- salt
- pepper
Topping:
- toasted sesame seeds/cashew nuts for topping
- cashew yogurt
- chilli flakes
- grilled crispy tofu
- anything you want – being creative is key!
*This recipe serves 4 people, but if you add more water it might serve more
Sometimes I like to indulge and cook and roast and marinate and all that jazz for hours. Yes, that makes me happy! But most of the times it is important that my food gets prepared quickly and that it is simple to make. This recipe is as well one of those where you just pop all the ingredients into the same pot and then you basically just wait. Not really, but close enough.
Let’s get started then:
You will start by washing, chopping, peeling and preparing all the ingredients from the list above. It is not important to chop it all perfectly (this is also one of the things that makes this recipe easy), hence this will all get blended in the end.
Firstly, heat the pan, with one table spoon of coconut oil, you want to sauté your onions and garlic (don’t caramelize them, since soup is a bit sweet in itself. Add ground and fresh spices, lower the heat, you don’t want to burn them. Here comes the anti-inflammatory grated ginger next (you can skin this step but I love the kick it gives to the soup). What you are adding next are carrots and celeriac – sauté them as well. Next – add the sweet potatoes, and after few minutes you want to add the water, salt and pepper, cover the pot, and leave to simmer on low-medium heat for 20ish minutes. I always rather add less water and then add more later. That also depends on a thickness I want to achieve that day.
When veggies are finished cooking, remove from heat and blend with hand blender. Using Nutri Bullet or classic smoothie blender is absolutely okay – but you will have to wait a bit for a soup to cool down if your blender is plastic – keep that in mind.
Last, add the coconut milk or cashew yogurt and bring to a slight boil. Give it a taste test, add water, more salt or pepper. Serve with toasted cashew nuts, cashew yogurt, pumpkin seed oil, grilled tofu, chili flakes and a splash of lemon juice – remember what I said – be creative!
Buon appetit!