Rustic Roasted Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

I found myself with a 5 lb. bag of lovely organic carrots this weekend and wanted to make a nice side dish with them so I decided to roast them with some sweet potatoes. However, once I took them out of the oven, I decided that I wanted to use them for a soup. Savory fresh ginger, thyme and shallots enhanced the flavors and you can customize the 'heat' by choosing to add more ginger. My friend tasted some and said 'I have never tasted a carrot soup like this before, it is earthy and rustic.' Perfect description.

Ingredients

1 lb. organic carrots, chopped

3/4 lb. sweet potatoes, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large shallots, peeled and roughly chopped

1 small piece of fresh ginger (guess it was about 1/2-3/4 inch big), chopped

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

3 cups low-sodium organic chicken broth*

1/2 cup 1% milk**

Preheat oven to 375. Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl, toss well, and place onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or foil. Bake for 50 minutes or until tender. Stir once halfway through. Allow to cool a bit and then place half of the mixture into a blender with half of the broth. Be sure that the lid is vented, as you need to let the steam escape from the blender, and place a piece of paper toweling over to keep from squirting out. Blend, but not too long as we are going for rustic not thin and watery. Pour the mixture into a bowl and repeat on other half. You can now either heat it up in the microwave a bit or warm up in a pot.

*I prefer my soup a bit thinner so I ended up adding another 1/2 cup of broth; also, use Vegetable broth for Vegetarian version.

** Use all broth if you prefer.