Szechwan Carrot Soup (with Peanut Butter!)

February 9, 2010

I may write about the same two ingredients all the time but you’ll rarely find me experimenting with chocolate and/or peanut butter on a savory level. Well, I went outside my comfort zone of cookies and brownies a little this week and gave savory a whirl.

Adam of one of my favorite blogs, Amateur Gourmet recently conducted The Great Soup Battle of 2010, where he and two friends each cooked up three reader-submitted soup recipes and voted on the best. Adam chose a Szechwan Carrot Soup recipe, which was modified from an Epicurious recipe. Off the bat, the thought of peanut butter soup didn’t sound super appetizing to me, but I LOVE peanut butter satay sauce and figured, hey if it’s good enough to be submitted for a soup battle, it’s gotta be good right?

Right!

The soup is creamy but not heavy. It has a little heat, but it’s not too spicy. The chili flakes hit right in the back of your throat and warm you up. It’s easy to make, the ingredients are cheap (assuming you have items like soy sauce and sesame oil in your pantry) and it’s pretty healthy as far as I can tell. But most importantly of course: it’s delicious. I took Adam’s advice and mixed in a bit of chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice. It’s definitely more of a carrot soup than a peanut butter soup, but the combo of peanut butter and asian flavors lend a really nice flavor profile to the background.

Soup helps me get through the long, cold winters. I make it for dinner at least once a week but often get tired of the typical minestrone and stew recipes. The flavor and texture of this soup was a nice break from the usual, plus it was a great excuse to eat one of my favorite ingredients for dinner! However, although I consider this meal to be progress for my taste buds, don’t expect to see cocoa soup on the site anytime soon. We’ll save the chocolate for a post-peanut butter soup dessert! ;)

Get the recipe at Amateur Gourmet (you’ll need to scroll quite a bit) and note to all you veggie lovers out there: this soup is vegetarian.