In my flavour-mind I wasn’t 100% sure that fennel would go well with ginger or not but Im so glad I tried it! This is one little flavour bomb soup!
Sweet earthy carrot goes great with ginger, and the anaseedy flavour of the fennel added a great freshness to the soup. I also added a celery stalk, onions, garlic, potato and vegetable stock of course.
The dukkah topping was made with what I had at hand: sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds, mustard seeds, chili flakes, pepper and salt. All quickly stir fried in some olive oil until fragrant and crispy. Usually you add nuts too and and can play around with other spices, but this little spiced seeds mix was amazing!
I served it with bruschettas topped with homemade babaganoush and fresh Japanese tomatoes from our own terrace. Gotta love summer!
Carrot, Fennel & Ginger Soup with Crunchy Dukkah Topping
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Loading...Ingredients
- Soup
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
- 2-3 garlic cloves, grated
- Thumb size ginger, grated (no need to peel, unless you want too)
- 1-2 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs, finely sliced (green shoots can go in too)
- 300 - 400 g carrots, washed and roughly chopped, no need to peel
- 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubes
- 1 stock cube
- Enough water to almost cover everything, ± 750 ml, you can always add more later
- Pepper and salt to taste
- To serve
- Koriander leaves
- Chili flakes
- Bread
- Dukkah (my version)
- 3 tbsp sunflower seeds (or pumpkin seeds, or a mix of both)
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup crushed nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds etc) - optional, I didn't have any lying around
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp nigella seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- A pinch of chili flakes
- A pinch of coarse sea salt, to taste
- 1 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
Instructions
The soup
Heat the olive oil in a heavy based soup pan and add the onions, garlic, celery and ginger with a pinch of salt. Sauté on medium heat until fragrant and transparant, ± 3 minutes. Don't let it brown.
Add the fennel, carrot and potato and toss to coat everything.
Add the stock cube and just enough water to cover everything, some ingredients can be sticking out. You can always add more water later after blending to get a thinner consistency.
Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to medium and let it simmer for ± 20 minutes until the carrot, fennel and potatoes are soft.
Take off the heat and blend with a handheld mixer until smooth. Add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time until you get your desired conistency.
Taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking.
Serve the soup with the dukkah sprinkled on top (see below), some fresh koriander leaves and fresh crunchy bread.
The dukkah
While the soup is simmering make the dukkah.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add all the ingredients, except the salt to the pan.
Stir fry on medium to high heat until everything is fragrant, toasted and crunchy. ± 2 -3 minutes.
Add a small pinch of salt to start with, taste and add more to your liking.
Notes
for the spice mix I would definitely add cumin and fennel seeds, but for the rest just play around with what you have and what you like!
