Curried Carrot Ginger Soup with Pepitas, Cilantro Oil and Spicy Homemade Marshmallow

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp cinnamon
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 (1 ½ inch) piece ginger, peeled and minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 small shallots, finely chopped
2 pound carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
2 medium bay leaves
5 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup orange juice
Juice of ½ lime
Zest of 1 lime
Salt/pepper
¼ cup heavy cream (optional)

Toasted pepitas (optional)
Cilantro oil (optional)
Homemade spicy marshmallows (optional)

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add curry powder, cardamom, cinnamon and garlic, and toast until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

2. Add ginger, onion, shallots, carrots, bay leaf, broth and orange juice. Increase heat to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer until carrots are soft when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Add the lime juice and the zest and taste. Add salt/pepper until flavors are balanced.

3. Working in batches, process soup in a blender until smooth; or using an immersion blender, puree the soup in the pot it’s been cooking in. (Be very careful when blending the hot soup, as steam could blow off the blender lid, or hot soup may splash on you.)

4. If using the blender, pour soup back into the pot and return to the stove over medium heat. Stir in cream (if you like) and adjust seasoning as needed.

5. Serve immediately. Sprinkle a few pepitas over the soup, drizzle with cilantro oil and top with a spicy marshmallow.

To make cilantro oil:

1/3 cup safflower oil, or neutral oil (extra virgin olive oil is too strong and will overpower cilantro)
1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and stems
¼ tsp salt

Puree cilantro, oil and salt in a blender or food processor until smooth. You may need to stop in the middle and scrape down the sides of the food processor. Drizzle over soup, bread, dress pasta with it. Cilantro oil will keep for a few days refrigerated.