Vellutata, an Italian creamy soup, is one of my favourite ‘fridge clean’ dishes! Together with risotto, frittata, and possibly quiche, this is how I usually cook vegetables that need to be used up. This vellutata is a classic example. Few weeks ago I had some soft carrots in my fridge so I added some chilli, ginger and coriander, cooked it, blitzed it, added the juice of one orange and made a very fresh and fragrant vellutata for our Sunday night dinner!

This soup is the perfect winter fix and it’s packed with vitamins. Carrots are rich of beta-carotene, as well as B-vitamins, potassium and other minerals, oranges are a great source of vitamin C and ginger has great anti-inflammatory properties.

It’s very easy to make and it is completely dairy free. I personally do not like any cream or dairy in my soups. You can garnish with fresh coriander, mixed seeds, chilli flakes or serve it as a starter or have it at ready for a quick lunch.

Ingredients

It takes less than one hour to make and it serves 4 people.

• 5 medium size carrots
• 2 small potatoes (or 1 medium size)
• Half brown onion
• One red chilly (medium hot)
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• A small bunch of coriander, leaves and stalk (about 25gr)
• Juice from one orange (medium size)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 700 ml cold water
• Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Peel and chop the carrots, potatoes and onions. Cut the chilli lengthwise, remove the seeds and slice it in chunks.

Cut the potatoes and carrots in chunks of similar size so that they have equal cooking time. Also, use the knife or a teaspoon to scrape the chilli seeds off.

2. Put the EVOO, onions, carrots, potatoes, ginger and chilli in a pot and cook it for few minutes on high flame.

3. Cover it with the water, bring it to boil and let is simmer on a medium heath until the vegetables are tender. The vegetables are usually tender and cooked after about 30 minutes of cooking.

4. Add the coriander, season it with salt, steer it and take it off the heath.

5. Blend everything and add the orange juice at the end. This it the time to taste the vellutata and add more salt, dry chilli flakes and orange if needed

6. Serve it hot with an extra drizzle of EVOO and fresh coriander

If you are not a fan of fruit in your soups, you can skip the orange juice, it still tastes very nice!

This vellutata freezes beautifully. I usually make big batches of soup, then portion it and freeze so that I can have it for lunch with a warm piece of bread.

If you want to make this recipe and share it on your social media please tag me using @prepandproperrecipes and the tag #prepandproperrecipes