Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

Every Sunday Stud Muffin and I cook a new dish. This Sunday just happened to be Valentine's Day and since we were going to Brunch and then to get massages we decided to cook this the night before!!

I am sure that this doesn't sound like the best soup to some people but I really enjoyed it!!

Ingredients
 3 tablespoons butter (or in my case soybean margarine)
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
2 1/4 cups peeled &; sliced carrots
2 apples
1 cup water
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled &; chopped
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel
1/4 cup orange juice

First the chopping process (which for me is painful). So, I thought that I would post Stud Muffins beautiful chopping skills. He is a fantastic prep cook and it saves me many a band-aide.

 

 

After all the chopping has been done...
In a large Dutch Oven, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat.

Add onion and cook about 2 minutes or until tender.

Stir in carrots. Cook for 3 minutes.

Peel, core and chop one of the apples. Stir the chopped apple, broth, the water, sweet potatoes and allspice into the carrot mixture.

Bring to boiling: reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile for garnish (I apologize, I forgot to take pics of this part). Finely chop the remaining apple. In a small skillet melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add the finely chopped apple and cook about 5 minutes. Stir in orange peel. Remove from heat and set aside.

Cool soup slightly. (as you can see I skipped the cooling step) and blend until smooth. If you use a blender you will need to let the soup cool a bit and then blend in sections. I use a hand blender and leave it in the original saucepan. This just means less dishes for me later and fewer steps in the process.

Once soup is smooth add orange juice and simmer for about 5 minutes. Top each serving with apple-orange peel mixture and serve!

It was fantastic!!