Carrot & Almond Soup

Soup, you say, that’s winter fodder, isn’t it? I could eat (drink?) soup any time of the year, so spring doesn’t put me off a big, warm bowl of comfort.

But during the warmer months, you might want to lighten up a little. This delicately-flavoured soup is perfect for spring and it full of goodies. I spotted these tempting-looking dirty carrots at our local farmers’ market on Sunday and pounced. They were always destined for the soup pot.

When I first went low-carb, I avoided carrots as there were some hardliners at the time who insisted carrots were too sweet. Then, I gave myself a good shake. “Nonsense! The carrot is delightfully delicious.” Carrots as a carb to be concerned about is very much sweating the small stuff. Avoid the cakes, sweets, pastries and overloads of pasta, rice and potatoes instead.

[It’s a bit of a cheek to call this a recipe, as it’s so easy it’s not true…]

• Carrot and Almond Soup

  • Servings: 4
  • Time: 30mins
  • Difficulty: easy
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  2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 40ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1-litre chicken stock
• 100g ground almonds
• Salt and pepper

Put the carrots, onions, garlic and stock in a large saucepan/stock pot, bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook until the carrots are soft. It should take about 10-15 minutes, depending on how small you have chopped your carrots.

Take the pan off the heat. Add the ground almonds and lemon juice, and puree with a stick blender until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I like to top this with a poached egg for extra protein/satiety*.

Allow about 11g net carbs for serving for four or about 14g for three.