Curried Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

This soup started life as a way to use up a bag of carrots that had gone a bit floppy in the fridge. Roasting them first with the sweet potato was the lucky accident. Those edges turn caramelised and sweet, and when the vegetables hit the stock they taste deeper than a simple boil ever gets you. It is worth taking the twenty minutes in the oven, even on a busy weeknight.

Carrots are one of the easiest vegetables to love in soup because they carry sweetness without any help. They are also a good source of beta-carotene, which is the orange pigment that gives this bowl its colour. Sweet potato does a similar job, and it makes the texture almost velvety once blended, so you need very little cream or butter to get a rich finish.

A few small things make a difference here. Chop the carrots and sweet potato into pieces of similar size so they roast at the same rate. Let the curry powder and ginger cook in the pan for a full minute before the liquid goes in, because that is when they lose their raw edge. And add the orange juice with the stock rather than at the end, so its brightness softens into the soup and does not taste sharp on top.

If you have leftovers, this soup keeps well in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days. It also freezes nicely, though I would hold back the yoghurt and herbs until you reheat it, since the yoghurt can separate a little. Loosen it with a splash of water or stock when it has thickened in the fridge.

For a fuller lunch, serve it with a few crisp root vegetable cakes on the side, or go with something a bit more substantial like the Oven Baked Root Vegetable Patties. A bowl of Warming Chickpea and Sweet Potato Soup is also a lovely companion if you are feeding a crowd. Crusty bread is always welcome, and so is a handful of toasted seeds scattered over the top for crunch.