I’ve loyally prepared my Carrot Soup with Lemon and Ginger since 2006. This is the other carrot soup.

It’s not that I was unhappy with my standby, but I felt a pull to dabble with a chilled version. One that was exotic (curry and coconut milk) and low-maintenance (we didn’t want anything to get messy).

This soup really is as simple as it gets: Saute vegetables and spices, simmer them in broth, puree with silky coconut milk, and squeeze in lime. Then there’s the chilling, of course—six to 24 hours of it. This is definitely a meal to plan in advance, but it will patiently wait for you to return home from work and satisfy you as fast as you can ladle and slurp down a bowl.

I used good-quality, hot curry powder—a must—and served it with warm naan. And other than a few tweaks, I stuck pretty closely to the original epicurious.com recipe.

I did my usual morning prep for this, and I snuck a sip of the soup fresh off the stove. To be honest, it was just as good hot as it was cold—whatever your fancy.

Will it replace my first carrot love? Probably not. But it’s nice to spice it up once in a while. 

Chilled Carrot Soup with Curry and Coconut
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
1 small onion, diced
1-inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 1/4 pounds carrots
2 1/2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or less if using salty stock)
Juice of 1 lime

Instructions
Melt butter in a medium pot. Cook scallions, onion, ginger, and curry powder until vegetables are soft and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Add carrots and cook 5 minutes more. Pour in stock, bring to a boil, cover, and cook until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

Puree carrot mixture in batches with coconut milk. Transfer puree to a bowl, and stir in salt and lime juice. Refrigerate until cool, 6 hours to overnight.

Serves 4 to 6

Oyster mushrooms from the CSA and an oyster-friendly bottle of Muscadet from the Loire Valley inspired this super simple Double Oyster Soup adapted from epicurious.com. All of the produce for the meal was local, and the oysters came from Apalachicola Bay in northwest Florida.

The briny oysters and rich half and half melded into a luxurious soup—along with ample green garlic and spring onions who lent their color and punch. And when there wasn’t a bite of oyster, the mushrooms stood in with their meaty texture. (The oyster mushroom’s mild flavor was more pronounced in leftovers.)

This wasn’t inexpensive to make, but you could taste the efforts of the farmers and oystermen (and the cook, I dare say). And that’s what it’s all about.

Double Oyster Soup
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced spring onions or leeks
1/2 cup thinly sliced green garlic
1 1/2 cups oyster mushrooms, sliced into 1/4-inch matchsticks
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 1/2 cups half and half
2 cups shucked oysters
1/2 cup oyster liquid

Instructions
Melt butter in a medium-sized pot. Add onions, green garlic, mushrooms, nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until most of the liquid from the vegetables has evaporated.

Transfer half of the vegetables to a blender along with half and half, and puree until smooth. Pour liquid into the pot, and bring to a simmer. Add oysters and oyster liquid, and cook for 3 minutes, just until the tips of the oysters begin to curl. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 to 6

To help clear the nasty cold our niece Camille gave us for Christmas, I made a big pot of Mexican tortilla soup based on a recipe my Mom has made for years … with one snag. I ran out of the pasilla chiles I usually use for the recipe. Publix was out as well, so William picked up dried chipotle chiles to try instead. Although initially dismayed by the thought of the substitution, I was a quick convert after one slurp. The chipotles lent the soup their signature smokey flavor and imparted about the same (nominal) level of heat as the pasillas, which kept William happy.

The soup may have lacked sinus-clearing heat, but it packed an intense amount of flavor for a simple concoction of vegetables and broth. And the decadent toppings—avocado, queso fresco, sour cream and fried tortilla strips—filled and satisfied our fatty desires.

Mom, I’m pretty sure you’re reading this. As soon as you can get some decent tomatoes, give your chiles the boot and try some chipotle in your tortilla soup.

Tortilla Soup with Chipotle Chiles
1 1/2 to 2 cups canola oil
3 dried chipotle chiles, seeded and chopped into 1/2-inch hunks
3 medium tomatoes, quartered
1 large onion, sliced
1 jalapeno, halved
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1/2 cup olive oil
3 quarts chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade
Salt to taste

Garnish
Corn tortilla strips, fried until crisp
Diced avocado
Sour cream
Chopped cilantro
Crumbled queso fresco

Instructions
Heat canola oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Fry chipotle chiles for 1 to 2 minutes, until softened. Reserve oil to fry tortilla strips for garnish.

Combine chipotle chiles, tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cilantro in a blender, and puree until smooth. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large pot. Pour vegetable puree into the olive oil, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the liquid is a deep brick color. Add stock to the pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes more. Season to taste with salt (salt quantities will vary greatly, depending on the stock you use).

Pour soup into bowls, top with desired garnish, and serve.

Serves 8 to 10

This soup is as densely packed with protein and (healthy) fat as a vegan meal can be, hence the name famine stew—so donned by my coworkers.
Caloric stalwarts of the meal are peanut butter and tofu. The tofu is pureed, blended in and hidden from sight for tofu haters.

Sweet potatoes and tomatoes lend the orange hue, and chunks of bright bell peppers add a hint of fruit to this African-inspired dish. As with all of my meals, I tend to add more salt than what’s found in the original recipe, but the soup lacks oomph without enough sodium.

William and I love (love) this dish. It’s creamy and rich—maybe even luxurious if it weren’t so cheap to prepare. And when ladled over rice, it fills us more than sufficiently.

Where there’s hunger, I highly recommend famine stew.

Famine Stew
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
2 to 3 teaspoons coarse sea or kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups pureed tomatoes
5 cups vegetable stock
1 cup natural peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
1 14-ounce block soft or silken tofu, drained
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups cooked rice

Instructions
In a large pot, heat oil on medium-high heat. Add onion, peppers, sweet potatoes, and ginger; cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, cooking 3 minutes more. Stir in cayenne, 2 teaspoons salt, and black pepper. Cook for a minute more, and then add the pureed tomatoes, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.

Add peanut butter to the pot, and stir until incorporated. Combine 2 cups (or more) of the soup and the tofu in a blender; puree until smooth. Pour the tofu mixture into the pot, and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt and cayenne as necessary.

Serve over rice, topped with sliced scallions.

Serves 8

With half of a roasted pumpkin on my hands (left over from pumpkin sage risotto) and per William’s request, I made a big pot of curried pumpkin soup—laced with coconut milk and fruity apple. A fat tablespoon of curry powder (I used an Indonesian variety, heavy on coriander and cumin) and a dash of cayenne offset the soup’s sweeter elements and provided just enough background heat to keep things interesting.

Although the home-roasted pumpkin was initially stringier than canned puree, a minute-long whirl with the immersion blender yielded a plenty creamy bowl of soup (perfect for mopping up with a hunk of bread). 

This recipe was almost vegan, but I added two teaspoons of Asian fish sauce at the last minute for extra oomph. Lemon juice would provide a distinct zip as well, while keeping the recipe in bounds for vegetarians. 

Curried Pumpkin Soup 
1/2 3- to 4-pound pumpkin, roasted
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 medium apple, peeled, cored, and diced
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
Dash cayenne pepper
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
3 cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fish sauce (or lemon juice to taste to keep it veg) 
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Instructions
Roast pumpkin (here are great step-by-step instructions), chopping half of the pumpkin into 1/2-inch cubes and reserving the second half for another use.  

Heat oil in a medium-sized pot on medium heat. Add onion, apple, garlic, curry powder, and cayenne pepper, and cook 8 to 10 minutes, until onion is tender. Add pumpkin, coconut milk, and vegetable stock to the pot, and bring to a boil, scraping up brown bits. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.

Cool slightly and puree soup with an immersion blender (or in batches with a traditional blender). Stir in salt and fish sauce. 

Serve topped with cilantro. 

Serves 6