Great Fall Soups: Kid-Friendly Recipes for Carrots, Squash, and More
With autumn’s chill upon us, we find ourselves hankering for belly-warming soups. Some of our favorite recipes just happen to be orange, fitting for October’s ultimate holiday. (And more appealing than soup that’s black, Halloween’s other signature hue…).
Here’s a kid-friendly orange soup we love to make on any old night, but especially during the fall. Don’t fret about being toooo precise with the ingredients. Like ginger? Add more! Like it thicker? Add less stock. You get the idea. The goal is to mix it up based on your family’s tastes.
Make-It-How-You-Like-It Carrot Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon freshly-grated ginger
- 3/4 cup chopped scallions
- 1 small yellow onion (sliced)
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 and 1/2 pounds finely sliced carrots
- 1 can (or 1 and 1/2 cups) coconut milk
- 2 and 1/2 cups chicken stock
- Lime juice, salt, and pepper
- Optional toppings: plain yogurt, sour cream, homemade croutons (like this ridiculously basic Food Network version), parsley, scallion greens, chopped/toasted almonds, etc.
*Try adding a couple tablespoons of peanut butter and a couple tablespoons of soy sauce right before blending for a yummy Thai touch.
**Amounts are approximates as you should adjust according to your own taste and consistency preferences.
Directions:
- In a large pot, sauté the ginger, scallions, sliced onion and curry powder over medium-high heat until the onions are tender and translucent, stirring often.
- Add the carrots and cook for a few minutes until slightly softened, stirring occasionally.
- Add the coconut milk and chicken stock and let cook on medium-low heat for around 20 minutes, or until the carrots are very soft.
- Using a blender, purée the soup in batches until smooth, transferring each batch to another large pot or bowl. WARNING: To avoid messy and painful explosions when blending hot liquids, only fill your blender halfway or less, remove the lid’s center insert (so that steam can escape), hold a kitchen towel over the top, and then blend in quick, short bursts.
- Stir in lime juice, salt, and pepper to taste, and top with the embellishments of your choice!
Here are 5 more hot leads on recipes for a bowl full of October sunshine:
- This pumpkin soup from the Pioneer Woman—so simple and the kiddos will love the cute pumpkin serving bowls and toasted pumpkin seeds on top!
- The Kitchn’s sweet potato soup with miso and ginger, if only for the motivation to oven-roast chickpeas as a topping.
- This Food Network butternut squash soup with a sweet and spicy kick from maple syrup and nutmeg.
- A velvety, sherbet-hued acorn squash bisque from Martha Stewart.
- This divine French lentil soup on Epicurious—we add mushrooms to the veggie mix, a little extra tomato, and 2 or 3 teaspoons of cumin while it simmers, and then top with shredded parmesan. Sure, it leans a little brown-orange, but the kids gobble it up!
