Editor's note: A quick but very warm welcome to Hillary, a Style Lush writer who will be sharing her delicious recipes and food finds with Food Lush every other week. She's one of the best, as you'll soon see!
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By Hillary
January means trying to undo weeks of indulgent eating (at least in our house it does). It's a struggle to get back to our healthy routine, so I try to make it as easy as possible.
This soup is easy to prepare, is full of flavour, and (when portioned out and stored in glass jars in the fridge) is so easy to grab and go (removing the temptation to hit up a drive through).
Wash, and/or peel, and rough chop the following:
2lbs carrots
2 medium yams
4 - 6 stalks of celery
1 large onion
4 - 6 cloves of garlic
Knob of fresh ginger (I go for a 1-inch to 2-inch knob for a strong ginger flavour)
Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil (I use olive) in a large soup pot. Add your veg and cook on high heat for 7 - 10 minutes. You want to keep things moving so they don't burn.
Add 6 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable) or water and bring to a boil.
Spice it up! Cumin, dried ground ginger, rosemary, black pepper, orange zest - whatever you fancy.
Cover and simmer until veg is tender (15 - 30 minutes, depending on how large your pieces are.)
Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Season with salt (I always leave this until the end because I never know how salty my stock is.)
That's it! I love this recipe because it's so fast. The most time-consuming part of the recipe is the vegetable prep and because it's a blended soup the vegetables don't have to be chopped prettily. I store individual portions in mason jars in the fridge so lunch is just a few minutes in the microwave away.

Yay! Welcome, Hillary. This looks delightful. (And Whole30 compliant WOOOO!)
Posted by: Caitlin | January 11, 2013 at 09:44 AM