by Erin Walgamuth

This delicious recipe came to me from across “the Pond” from our friend Dick Jones. We were chatting on Facebook about cooking and he wrote that he was making carrot soup with coriander….yum!

Having spent most of my life in Southern California, I, like many of you, know coriander as cilantro, which is the Spanish translation for the herb (BTW, it is also known as Chinese parsley and is an important herb in Indian cooking as well). If you look in the spice section of your favorite super-market you will see coriander seeds, but not cilantro seeds. Anyway, it all comes from the same herb known as coriandrum sativum. So there, now you know!

Click here to get the weekly Your SCV Home & Wellness Newsletter delivered right to your inbox!

This is a very simple soup to make and I have to say that it was even more delicious the day after I made it….no real surprise there!

I hope you will try this healthy, simple and delicious soup. Thank you Dick, cheers!

You will need-

• 6-8 qt stock pot with lid
• Vegetable peeler
• Sharp knife
• Cutting board
• Wooden spoon for stirring
• Blender
• Clean dish towel
• Mini Chopper food processor-optional

Start to finish is about 1 hour

Makes approximately 4 ½ cups of soup

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon Extra Virgin olive oil, plus 4 tablespoons for coriander drizzle

Sea salt or table salt (I prefer the taste of sea salt)

1 medium yellow onion peeled and cut into small dice

1 pound carrots peeled and chopped into small pieces

1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds or to taste (I bought whole seeds and ground them with a mortar and pestle)

6 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth (I used 4 cups vegetable broth and 2 cups chicken broth)

¼ cup fresh coriander (cilantro) finely minced

Put the olive and canola oil in the stock pot and turn heat to medium. Add the onion and stir to combine. Add two pinches of salt and stir to combine. Turn heat to medium low and cook onions stirring occasionally, until they are a light golden brown, about 8 minutes. Add ground coriander seeds, stir to combine. Add carrots, 2 pinches of salt and stir to combine. Add 4 cups of broth, stir to combine, place lid on pot. Adjust heat to achieve a vigorous simmer. Stir carrots and onion occasionally and simmer until carrots are very tender but not mushy, about 35 minutes or so.

Use a ladle to put carrots and broth into the blender (you may need to do this in batches) Place clean dish towel over the lid of the blender to keep your hand safe from any hot liquid that may seep out and blend until smooth. Return soup to the pot, add two cups of broth, stir to combine and heat until warm. Adjust salt to your liking. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Soup can be made the day before you wish to serve.

Note: I put ¼ cup of coriander leaves and 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into my mini chopper and blended until smooth. I divided the soup among four bowls and then drizzled some of the coriander and oil combo over the soup. It looked very pretty and tasted great! You can finely mince your coriander and mix with the olive oil by hand if you like, or just stir the coriander leaves into the soup before you serve it.