Stephanie's Recipes: Carrot Ginger Soup

Over the last few days, I've been trying out the anti-inflammatory diet. If I understand correctly, it's basically gluten in moderation, dairy in moderation, and lots of healthy fruits and vegetables. There's a whole balance to it (40% to 50% of daily calories from carbs, 30% from fat, and 20% to 30% from protein), but for right now, I'm just trying to cut out my over-abundancy of daily carbs and focus on eating more greens, beans, and fruity treats. Baby steps.

No, no. I'm not on this diet to lose weight. Though if I did, I wouldn't be too bummed. :)

I'm on this diet because I'm still really worried about my endometritis, AKA infection of the uterine lining. Dr. G isn't too worried about it, but little worry wart me is so extremely focused on it. So I'm taking matters into my own hands and trying to anti-inflame things with this new diet. I have no idea if this thought process is medically sound, but it makes sense to me. If my uterine lining is inflamed with  infection, this anti-inflammatory diet should at least help a little.

My Creighton Model instructor's story also encourages me to give it a try. She struggled for several years with infertility and after all the work up, surgeries, and medications, the fix that finally did the trick was this anti-inflammatory diet. She's since had two precious baby girls. I'm sold.

A few months ago, John and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on a little trip to Nashville and The Inn at Evins Mill. My favorite part of our romantic getaway was the Inn and the delicious meals they served. The night we arrived, we got to enjoy a 4-course meal cooked on site. The first course was a carrot ginger soup; it was so simple yet so tasty. I raved about it to our sweet waiter and he mentioned that the chef posted recipes from his meals on the Inn's blog. When I got home, I excitedly searched and searched their blogs (turns out they have about 10 blogs) until I found the recipe and then promptly forgot about it...

Until now! Because this soup is perfect for my new diet!! Tons of vegetables with a little bit of cream and a whole lotta yummy flavor. Mmmm!

So last night I gave it a go, and after peeling 5 pounds of carrots and chopping a large, pungent pile of garlic, I'm happy to say this soup is just as yummy as I remembered. I probably could have halved the recipe and still had plenty to go around, but I'm thinking this will freeze well, so the tons of soup I made will still be put to good use. Also, if you're dairy free, I imagine you could leave out the heavy whipping cream, or use a non-dairy creamer instead and it would still taste great.

While I'm not exactly sure that I won't cheat from time to time (I already miss quesadillas, cupcakes, and mac and cheese), this is certainly a great way to start!

Carrot Ginger Soup

Ingredients
3 tsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh garlic, chopped
1/2 cup fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 quarts chicken broth
5 lbs carrots, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp lemon zest, finely grated
1 13.5oz can unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
Heat oil in large stock pot on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and crushed red pepper flakes. Saute until onion is tender. Add chicken broth, carrots, and lemon zest and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for two hours, until carrots are very soft. Puree with immersion blender or food processor.
Stir in coconut milk and cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serving size: 1 cup. Serves 16.

Adapted from William Cochran's recipe.