Roasted carrot and ginger cream

It's time for creams and hot soups, and one of the cream recipes that my household has liked the most since I discovered it recently is this roasted carrot and ginger cream. It's a healthy soup that, when made with roasted carrots and a bit of pumpkin roasted in the ovengreatly enhances the flavor and results in an exquisite cream.

Spices are indispensable to round out the flavor — ginger works wonderfully, because it also pairs very well with the slight coconut touch provided by coconut water. The ingredient list results in a delicious combination.

Roasted carrot cream has nothing to do with traditional carrot cream. Its flavor intensifies and changes, offering those more woody and autumnal notes. At the same time, the pumpkin, together with the ginger, gives it a tone that reminds me of more Indian flavors, I would say, full of spice taste.

I highly recommend it. Today I cook it in a casserole, but you can shorten the preparation time by making it in a pressure cooker.

Ingredients

• 350 gr carrot
• 100 gr pumpkin
• 1 pinch of sugar (optional)
• 1 whole leek (the white part and the middle greener part)
• 450 gr vegetable broth
• 150 gr water
• 150 gr coconut milk (coconut water)
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 black pepper
• 1 tbsp salt
• 4 cloves of roasted garlic*
• Olive oil

*If you have them all the better; otherwise you can add some raw garlic to the trays alongside the carrot and pumpkin so they soften and roast (in the first step of the preparation). I recommend reading How to make Roasted Garlic and How to Use It, and always keeping a little jar of roasted garlic in the fridge — they enhance the flavor of any preparation.

Cocotte tradicional Le Creuset and Naturals Nordic Ware Tray

Preparation

1. Roast the carrots, pumpkin and garlic: Peel and cut the carrots lengthwise or into large pieces. Also peel the pumpkin and cut it into large pieces. Arrange everything on one or more baking trays (I use the Naturals Nordic Ware to roast quickly and in small quantities). Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast until you see them browned, about 20 minutes at 200 ºC. If you didn't have roasted garlic, add them to these trays in the oven to roast.
2. Prepare the cream: In the Le Creuset casserole, add a good glug of oil to the bottom (you can also use a tablespoon of butter if you prefer) and put it on low heat.
3. Add the leek cut roughly. Add a pinch of sugar and sauté over low heat for a few minutes until it becomes translucent.
4. Increase the heat so the leek browns a little if it hasn't yet, season with salt and pepper to taste and add the rest of the ingredients: add the previously roasted carrot and pumpkin, the roasted garlic, the water, the vegetable broth and the coconut water.
5. Let simmer for 20 minutes to meld the flavors (the main ingredients were already cooked in the oven, so it doesn't require much more cooking). Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender to puree (you can wait until it cools a bit so you don't burn yourself).

Notes

• If you want, after pureeing you can pass it through a chinois or sieve to ensure no leek strings remain, but it's not a cream that generally requires it (there's very little leek).
• You can serve it in soup tureens or mini cocottes, with some pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of oil, or with a splash of cooking cream. It makes a beautiful presentation! Remember there are also the Every mini ceramic cocottes by Le Creuset, they're so perfect for these creams!
• If you want to make the recipe vegan, you can substitute the butter with coconut oil.
• Another option, if you want to modify the recipe and try new things, is to replace the coconut milk with almond or oat milk. It results in a different and interesting cream. If you do it that way, when bringing it to the table garnish with some toasted almonds.

Believe me, it's a delicious cream. I say it, my family says it and those who have tried it say it, so I can only hope you feel encouraged to try it too.

And here's to many more slow-simmer recipes in a casserole!