A glut of vegetables at this time of year equals soup to us, but to make it more interesting I delved into my hoard of 'eastern promises'.
Use whatever vegetables you have or fancy - I used 2 white potatoes, 1 sweet potato, and 1 large carrot - all of which I par cooked keeping back their cooking liquid to add to some vegetable bullion for stock. Whilst they were cooking I chopped 2 red onions and 3 shallots, crushed 3 cloves of garlic and then cooked them in a little rapeseed oil. Once they became translucent I added 1 chopped fresh green chili, some chopped red pepper, some freshly grated ginger root, and then topped it all off with 3 sticks of chopped celery. To this mix add a small teaspoon of turmeric, a generous grating of nutmeg, some ground black pepper, a small amount of crushed sea salt, a little chili powder, and the juice of 1 lime.
Combine the root vegetables along with the stock to the onions and then add a 400g can of coconut milk. The thick creamed coconut tends to sit at the top of the can and it is best to spoon this out first letting it slowly melt and blend into the vegetables before finally adding the coconut liquid. All of this was then placed in my Slow cooker and left for several hours, but cook by whatever means you prefer.
I wanted to keep some of the texture rather than making it completely smooth so before serving I used my potato crusher to gently reduce the large lumps of potato etc.
Serve with chopped parsley and a spoonful of Crème Fraîche - suitable for vegetarians but omit Crème Fraîche for vegans.
The addition of the coconut milk, fresh root ginger, lime juice, fresh chilli and additional spices lifts the humble vegetable soup to another level.
