Spiced Carrot, Greens & Beans Soup

At yesterday's Farmers' Market, we picked up some wonderfully hardy organic winter carrots.  I love carrots for their sweetness, their crunch when raw and their smooth consistency when cooked.  I also love them for their nutrition:  a powerhouse of the antioxidant beta-carotene, carrots are great for vision, hair, skin, and even immunity.  Carrots are also a great source of vitamin K, C, and some B vitamins.  Besides all that -- they just plain taste good.  In the depths of a cold winter day, a sweet carrot is a welcome treat.  And on this cold day, I decided that some soup was in order.  Carrot-ginger soup is one of my favorite stand-bys, but today I wanted to spice it up even more while adding some nutrition and density.  So I came up with this lovely and creamy concoction:

                       

Spiced Carrot, Greens, & Beans Soup

To make this soup, you'll need:

• 2 tablespoons Extra-virgin Olive Oil
• 4-5 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 small onion, diced
• 4-5 carrots, depending on size, diced
• 1/2  a bunch of kale, chopped which I reckon is about 1/2 a pound.  You can also use spinach, broccoli, green beans, or any other green vegetable you fancy
• 1 cup precooked garbanzo beans.  I soaked mine and slow cooked them the day before.  You can used canned if need be.
• 4-5 quarter-inch slices of fresh ginger root.  If you're not sure how you'll take to such an explosion of deliciousness, start with a couple slices, and add more in after you blend the soup if you desire.  If you're like me, you will indeed desire more.
•  1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (okay, so I add 1 tablespoon.  You caught me.  But I love ginger.)
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika.
• Almonds for garnish.  Have you ever soaked almonds?  Give it a try sometime.  

In a large pot or saucier, heat the olive oil on medium heat.  Add the chopped onions and sliced ginger, stirring until almost translucent.  Pour in your water, along with the salt.  Add the carrots and garbanzo beans, and the rest of your spices.  Play around with the spices, experiment, and have fun.  If you want more punch, go for it.  You might also want to wait until the end to see how things feel for your taste. 

Once your water is boiling and your carrots are almost at an excellent state of softness (about 15-20 minutes), add in your kale, or whatever variety of vegetable you selected.  After about five minutes, carefully pour your soup into the blender.  I'd recommend blending half of the soup at a time, to prevent a hot mess exploding on you while you blend the soup.  Blend until the soup is a smooth consistency.  Perform the official taste test, and add more ginger if desired.

Upon serving, garnish with almonds.  For some reason, I feel like almonds and carrots are quite luscious together.  Perhaps it's from times when my hunger has been sated by carrots smeared with almond butter.  Perhaps it's to add to the protein of the garbanzo beans.  Cashews would also make an excellent companion to this soup.

Serves 2.
Stay warm and enjoy.