Carrot and coriander soup

Apparantly we are still having an 'Indian summer'.

That's all very well and good, but in my opinion there is nothing wrong with having an autumn. Here is something which is sort of Indian (it has coriander in it), and sort of autumnal. 

Carrot and Coriander Soup

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion , very finely chopped (red if you want more colour)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 potato, chopped up small
• 450g carrots , peeled and finely chopped
• 1.2l vegetable or chicken stock
• handful coriander (about ½ a supermarket packet

1. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, then fry for 5 mins until soft. Stir in the ground coriander and potato, then cook for 1 min. Add the carrots and stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Cover and cook for 20 mins until the carrots are tender.
2. Tip into food processor with the coriander, then blitz until smooth. Return to pan, taste, add salt if necessary, then reheat to serve. 

Note: I've only said: chop things up small because my food processor is actually one of those whizzy stick things. I discovered whilst making this soup that if it goes anywhere near an actual chunk of food, it by all means chops it up, but in the process it sprays that food, and anything else surrounding it, all over the kitchen.

Coriander flavour is reduced by heating, so if you use soup for what I do (cooling and then reheating to take to work later) I would either keep adding fresh coriander or, less bother and less money, chuck a few cloves of garlic into the soup before blending.

Carrots have lots of Vitamin A in them, so this should help you get through the winter without suffering too much with colds. However, whisky also does that and drinking whisky doesn't involve spraying carrot up your walls.