Not sure about you, but there is just something comforting about homemade soup.  Maybe it just reminds me of when I was a little girl.  I wanted to try to make a carrot soup, so this fun little recipe came to me the other day and I hope that it comforts and warms you up as much as it did for me. One of the things that I used in this soup to thicken it up was Yuca (or Cassava).  It’s like a potato like food, that can be found in your goya, produce or frozen sections of the supermarket.  In Brazil we use it a lot in cooking and it’s what makes our famous farinha de mandioca, a crunchy meal.  Anyway this little ingredient helped, but if you would like you can use a potato instead.  Okay here is what you need.

Ingredients:

7 Carrots, cut up

1 Medium Yuca (or potato), Cut up

1 Quart of Homemade Chicken Stock (or store-bought, if you want you can use vegetable Stock)

1 Medium Onion, Chopped

3 Garlic Cloves, Chopped

3 Pieces of Crystalized Ginger (I prefer this because it gave it more of a sweetness), chopped

2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation:

In a dutch oven or pot on medium heat, add olive oil and onions cook until onions are translucent.  Then add carrots, ginger and yuca cook for about 5 minutes or so, after add garlic cook for another 1 minute.  Add Stock and cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until carrots and yuca get soft. 

After done cool off for a bit before blending.  Blend soup in half and place in a large bowl.  Before you blend everything take a piece of yuca and cut it into strips.  Brown the strips in a little butter until crispy and use for garnish with some green little onions.