Carrot and cilantro soup

Cilantro... coriander....lets call the whole thing off!

On my limited food restrictions at the moment, you may have noticed that carrot is not on that list! Most vegetables are, well certainly most soup-yielding vegetables - I am not sure that I'd fancy a peeled zucchini soup!

The ingredients are quite simply carrots, and a lot of them, a sweet potato or yam if you desire, a vegetable stock cube, dried coriander, dried cinnamon, fresh coriander/cilantro and a dash of cream to serve.

Simply throw all of the peeled carrots and dried herbs/spices in with the stock (approx 5 cups of water). Put this in a nice big pot with a lid and let it do its thing for about half an hour. You want the vegetables to be soft enough to slice through with a butter knife, but not mushy yet. When they are at this stage, drain off some of the water, however keep it, you may want to use it again to make the soup runnier. Using a stick blender, or a blender if you are lucky enough to have one, blend the vegetables with some of the water until it creates a smooth and, well perhaps, soup-like consistency. Add back in some of the soup-water that you drained off if you'd like it a bit runnier. Throw in your coriander and blend it too so the flavours really go through the carrot. Keep a little to garnish with.

Serve up in your favourite Le Creuset soup bowls, or, any heavy bowls that retain their heat. Put a dollop of cream on the top if you are hoping for a little more joy out of your soup, add some coriander on top and eat alongside a crusty, freshly hot breadroll (with or without lashings of butter, your call).