Carrot & Coriander Soup for Sylvia

Living in East Anglia where a great deal of vegetables are grown commercially, I find the carrots that fail to make the grade are sold on to the public as "Pony carrots". There's nothing wrong with these carrots of course other than their being misshaped, but 10 kilos of them can cost as little as £2.00 and I find them hard to resist. Having bought 10 kilos and brought them home of course reality hits and I begin to wonder what I am going to make with them whilst trying my hardest to avoid vitamin A poisoning.

If you have a juicer, using it to make a litre of juice to add depth of carrot flavour to this soup is ideal. This is true for making any kind of beetroot soup as well, another vegetable which seems to be available to very little money in this area.

To make this soup you will need, (this makes over 3 litres of soup which freezes well)
1,500g of carrots plus another 1,500g juiced
1 small head of celery
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of black pepper
50g of butter if using.
2 litre of vegetable stock. (make that 3 litres if you are not using carrot juice)

In a large saucepan begin by frying the chopped garlic in the olive oil with the coriander seeds for 3 or 4 minutes on a low heat until the garlic begins to take on a little colour. Add the chopped onion and celery and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes before adding the 1,500g of carrots chopped up roughly and all the stock and carrot juice if you are using. Add the black pepper, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for at least an hour until the carrots are very tender. Blend the soup in batches, being careful to avoid overfilling the jug blender and causing the lid to fly off. Hot soup flying about is not good. This is easy enough by either allowing the soup to cool before blending or making sure the jug is never filled more than halfway and keeping a hand on the lid when you press the start button. Readers of my blog will know I often blend butter into some soups at this stage, it produces a velvety feel and an added richness without the extra dairy flavour adding cream would produce.

Notes:
 I find coriander seeds are particularly unyielding so this is one of the soups I always strain before serving.
Sylvia took two carrots for her neighbouring horses, every little bit helps!