Carrot Ginger Miso Soup with Sweet and Spicy Potatoes

During a quick stop at the adorable neighborhood wine/coffee shop 1215 last month, a fellow patron asked me — among other questions in a weird and slightly creepy string — “Do you listen to podcasts when you walk?” I’m not sure what gave it away; maybe I just have one of those podcast faces. And I walk. I walk a lot.

I walk, and therefore listen to podcasts, so much that there are a few hosts that I kind of feel like I know. Like, personally. If I met them, I’d probably be even more off-putting than that guy at 1215. And really, of all the hosts I'm pretend-friends with, the one I’m pretend-closest to is Pete Holmes.

There have been 192 episodes of his podcast, You Made It Weird, and they're about two or three hours each. I’ve spent a whole lot of time with Pete Holmes. I know what kind of soap he uses. I know who his therapist is. On days when I’m feeling a bit doughier than usual, it’s his voice saying “I like a thicker milkshake” that makes me feel like I can face the world.

So you can imagine the utter betrayal I felt when, in episode 188, he told Jonah Ray that he doesn’t like soup. I froke out. I sent emergency texts to my friends. How could ol’ Petey-Pants break my heart like that? Like it was nothing! At one point, he described carrot-ginger soup as “hot juice.” Oh, the disdain. It hurts all over again just typing it here.

 Maybe this is the first step toward healing. I genuinely believe this soup would have changed his mind.

Come over and eat soup with me, Pete! I'm not a crazed fan at all or anything HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I’ll admit: Even I have been known to find carrot soups a bit boring in the past. Not this baby. It was so good that I can't even quote what Logan said about it. Let's just say there were some visceral swears involved.

This soup is vegan, but you won't even think about that long enough to feel superior for eating it. (SOUPerior. Snort.) It tastes downright indulgent. The ginger is pretty prominent, and the miso makes it satisfyingly salty (but not too salty--just don't add too much). And another thing: this soup has one seriously silky mouthfeel (gross, who typed that?). 

Pro-Tip: Always color-coordinate your beer with your soup!

I used store-bought vegetable broth here — SO SUE ME. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to get it done, you know what I'm saying? Besides, Better Than Bouillon vegetable base is really tasty and doesn't add that weird sweetness that I find to sometimes be a problem in vegetable broths. Recommended.

Just call me Sandra Lee :(

I added blue (okay, purple) potatoes because I wanted orange and blue soup for the Broncos. As we all know now, they, like, seriously lost so hard. But I won. The potatoes complemented the flavors in the soup so well, and added a pleasing textural contrast to the smooth, creamy base. They were sticky, sweet, spicy, crispy and delicious.

And later, I ate a football-shaped cookie and approximately 26 different types of dips. I LOVE snacksSPORTS!

Carrot Ginger Miso Soup with Sweet and Spicy Potatoes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

4 servings, takes about an hour

GET THIS STUFF

For the soup:
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 lb of carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 of an onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
3 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons white miso
toasted sesame oil

For the potatoes:
3 small potatoes (I used purple ones but Yukon Gold would be good here, too), peeled and diced
Coconut oil
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, ground down further with a mortar and pestle
toasted sesame oil
sesame seeds

For the garnish:
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

DO THIS WITH IT

Put coconut oil in your pot over medium heat. When it melts into liquid, add the carrots, garlic and onions, give it a good stir, then cover and let the veg soften up for about 10 minutes.

Add vegetable broth and ginger, then simmer about 20 minutes until the carrots are really soft.

While that's going, heat up a good spoonfull of coconut oil in small frying pan over medium heat. Mix together the tamari, honey, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes, and add to the pan with the potatoes. These cook up pretty fast, about 15 minutes total. Stir them once in a while, but mostly the sauce will reduce down and glaze the potatoes for you without you even having to thing about it. When they're done (taste one and see how the texture is!), drizzle with a wee bit of sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. 

While the potatoes are cooking, take a small bowl and mix up the rice wine vinegar, water, salt and sugar, and throw the scallions in there to get a quick pickle on them. Delicious.

When the carrots are soft, blend everything till it's megasmooth with an immersion blender. To serve, divide among bowls and put a little pile of potatoes and scallions on top of each, and drizzle with a bit of sesame oil.
  

Bonus! Logan said this blue and orange mess was a good metaphor for the Super Bowl. :(