Carrot Soup With Crispy Chickpeas

This was SO GOOD!! Might be my favorite new soup.  David was out of town and so I spent most dinners making things that I would NEVER make when he was here.  One thing I really love that I don't really eat anymore is a carrot. David hates them. We never buy them.  So in his absence I decided to make a carrot soup. 

 

One of the reasons I loved this soup soup so much was it was rich and creamy and felt so comforting, but it was really a "diet" food.  Dairy free. This could be easily made with absolutely no fat if you omit the o live oil in the  roasting.  You could use a olive oil spray also.  This  could be easily made vegetarian by swaping out the chicken stock. It's so easy and  so delicious.

 

I cubed 1/2 of the smallest butternut squash I could find and one of the largest sweet potatoes I could find. I put them on a sheet tray and filled the rest of the tray with baby carrots. (About 3/4 of a giant bag. The tray was mostly carrots.) I tossed them in a little olive oil, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, coriander and cumin and roasted them at 400 for about 35 minutes until they were soft and caramelized.

 

When I pulled the vegetables out to cool, I put a can of drained chickpeas on the same tray with more of the above mentioned spices and toasted them until they were crunchy.  I reduced the heat to 350 just so I wouldn't accidentally burn them.

 

I put the vegetables in a blender with chicken stock and pureed until smooth.  Then I put the mixture into a pan.  You can add as little or as much stock as you like. It depends on how thick you want the soup to be.  I like mine on the thicker side, so I used about 1 1/2 boxes of low sodium chicken stock.  You could easily use vegetable stock too and keep it all vegetarian. 

 

I added a little more seasoning to taste. A bit of garlic. And it was ready. I pulled the chickpeas out of the oven and used them on top for a crunchy garnish. 

 

Here is approximately what I did, but remember it can all be changed. Add the herbs you like ... the amount of stock you want ... the vegetable combination you like best. 

 

ROAST

• 1/2 a small butternut squash
• 1-2 sweet potatoes, depending on size
• 1 1/2 - 2lbs baby carrots
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 2 tlb cumin
• 2 tbl coriander

Roast at 400 for 30-40 minutes until soft and caramelized.

 

BLEND

Blend the vegetable mixture with stock.  I used 1 1/2 boxes of low sodium chicken stock.

 

CHICKPEA GARNISH

 

1 can drained chick peas

olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp cayenne

2tsp cumin

2tsp coriander

Roast at 350 until brown and crunchy.