Simple Slow Cooker Carrot Soup with Coriander

This is a simple slow cooker carrot soup with coriander that I’ll make if I buy a bag of carrots, when I only actually wanted ONE carrot for what I was cooking.  Rather than leaving the carrots sitting in the bag loitering, I thought I’d get rid of them soonest by using the slow cooker to make a carrot soup.  And, as I had some coriander to use up, I thought I might as well toss that in too!

Using a slow cooker to make soup is easy, it’s a real Cheats’ Soup!  You put barely any effort in and a few hours later there’s soup. It’s magic.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped – or I’ll use 3 tablespoons of dried onions and chop those up even finer.
• 1 pound/500 grams of carrots; these need to be topped/tailed and peeled then cut into smaller chunks.
• 1 heaped teaspoon of dried coriander – or fresh if you’ve got it.
• 2 heaped teaspoons of garlic powder (you can use fresh 2 garlic cloves, crushed, if you want)
• About 1 litre of water, with 2 small vegetable stock pots or 2-3 vegetable stock cubes – mixed together so you’ve got stock.
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, white if you’ve not got brown, don’t let this stop you!
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger, fresh, frozen or from a jar!
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons instant mash powder. I use this to thicken the soup, if you don’t have this, then you can grate one real (peeled) medium-sized potato into the pot instead.
• Salt/pepper to taste.

Method:

1. Add everything to the slow cooker and give it a stir round.
2. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 1 hour, then turn down to LOW for 6 hours.
3. You now need to blend the soup down so it’s the consistency you like.  You can do this in a food processor, or with a stick blender, or just a fork if you’ve no gadgets!  I’ve got a cheap stick blender just for when I make soup.

How to Make Soup Thicker or Thinner

At this point you are the judge of whether the soup’s thick, or thin, enough for your liking.  It’s simple to thicken soup or make it thinner.  Simply add more boiling water to make it thinner – or more instant potato granules to make it thicker.  Whichever you do, add these slowly so you get it spot on first time.

Can You Freeze Carrot Soup?

This soup freezes easily – just cool it down and put it into a freezer-safe container.  I tend to portion it up using a mug as my measurement tool.  I keep empty butter tubs to use to shape soup portions into flat discs.  To cook the soup you can defrost it overnight in the fridge, then heat it up in a saucepan or microwave.  Alternatively you can cook the soup from frozen in the microwave or in a saucepan simply by keeping an eye on it and stirring it frequently to break it up as it defrosts.

Serve:

I just have toast with soup.  I don’t bother with garnishes – those are your choice.