At Ben's request, I attempted to make a gingered carrot soup. Ginger is a tricky taste. Too little, no impact. To much, well, we all now what happened the first time we put an entire piece of candied ginger down the hatch.
I did some recipe research and after a couple of attempts, I arrived on the proportions below. Spicy, but not too spicy.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 red onion
1/4 cup minced peeled fresh ginger
3 cups (or more) vegetable broth
5 cups sliced peeled carrots (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup half and half
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt & Pepper to taste
How To
Heat oil in heavy saucepan, I use a casted iron dutch oven, over medium-high heat. Sauté onion and ginger until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add 3 cups vegetable broth and sliced carrots. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender, about 30 minutes.
Turn off heat, and using an immersion blender, puree mixture until smooth. You can also use a traditional blender for this purpose, but it gets very messy. For under $30, pick up one of these handy hand blenders and use if for all sorts of blending - mess free.
Return heat to low, and stir in orange juice, then half and half. Heat for 5 minutes. Mix in ground cinnamon. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. And Serve.