If there is one answer to most of the world’s problems, it likely comes in the form of one four-letter word:

SOUP.

Are you cold? Have some soup.

Are you ill? Have some soup.

Hungry? Injured? Bad hair day? Just lost a presidential election?

Have some soup.

Better yet … make it for others.

My mother-in-law has a special knack for whipping up a variety of purées in less time than it takes me to walk to the mailbox. She throws a carefree hand in the air, stating it was nothing more than having a peek in the icebox to see what’s about to go off.

It’s probably not the best way to advertise the dinner special on tonight’s menu, but I swear, her kitchen knows how to squeeze the last bit of goodness out of anything that resides in it.

In honor of that theme, we’re going to wring the final bit of nourishment from the fall kitchen garden. The autumn earth has held onto those bright orange spikes long enough–we’ll take it from here, thank you very much.

Roasted Carrot and Sweet Curry Soup

Ingredients

2 lbs carrots, peeled and segmented into three parts

2 tsp. sweet curry

Salt and Pepper

Olive oil

2 large onions

48 ounces of chicken broth (or veg if you’re veg)

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ cup light cream

½ cup toasted pecans roughly crushed with pestle and motar

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Cookin’

Heat your oven to 400°

Place your cut up carrots in a bowl, throw in a few glugs of olive oil, the sweet curry and a few good shakes of salt and pepper.

Using a parchment covered half sheet, spread your spiced carrots out on the pan and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until they begin to caramelize with a hint of browning.

Meanwhile, chop up your onions, toss a few good glugs of olive oil in a large pot, place on medium heat and slowly sweat the onions until translucent with the cover on.

When the carrots are finished, add to the soup pot, pour in 24 ounces of your broth and purée the ingredients with an immersion blender (or transfer to a bar blender/food processor and then return to pot).

Add your cinnamon and adjust your seasonings – more salt and pepper? More curry? Maybe add a touch of honey if you prefer the sweetness. Add the final ounces of broth depending upon how thick or thin you prefer your soup. Swirl in the cream.

Ladle into bowls and top with the toasted nuts as garnish.

Rest easy knowing you’ve aided sickness setbacks, injury injustices and presidential predicaments. You may not be able to solve all the world’s crises, but you may just have made them a little more manageable.

Now don’t forget to head on over to the main post (here) to see what I’m bletherin’ on about this week. And check out what we’re talkin’ bout down at the pub (here) too!