Maple-Roasted Carrot and Ginger Soup

This is a great soup for babies, little people and adults alike. I have served for all and even at dinner parties and it has always gone down well. The sweetness of this soup from the maple syrup is obviously a winner for babies and little ones. Interestingly, it was also the only thing, apart from ice cream, that my 15 month old at the time, could eat when she was extremely poorly. So, although I’m not extolling some unknown medicinal qualities in the soup, it was just such a relief to get her to eat something healthy, with calories in it, other than ice cream! This is quite a thick soup but, if you are giving to your baby and if you want to, you could pop in a few tiny bits of toast or bread or perhaps give your baby a piece of soft bread to chew on whilst you feed them this yummy soup. This soup can be frozen. If you want to reduce the quantity, just halve the amount of ingredients.

Serves 8 adults, so definitely lots of portions for babies and little people.

Ingredients

2 kg carrots
2 onions, cut into eighths
1/2 finger chunk of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
4 cloves garlic
3 tbsp sunflower oil
4tbsp maple syrup
a bit of black pepper
1.5-1.75 litres of low salt chicken or vegetable stock
a little chopped chives (for sprinkling over if serving for adults – you can try with children, just use sparingly as the flavour can be strong)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas 7.
Peel carrots and cut into pieces roughly the size of your little finger.
Put into a roasting tin (you may need 2 as the carrots should have space).
Add all the other ingredients except the stock and herbs.
Mix thoroughly with your hands and roast for 50 – 60 mins, turning ocasionally, until the vegetables are tender and patched with brown.
Cool slightly then transfer some of the carrots to a liquidiser, including any of the brown, sticky residue you can scrape from the tin.
Add some of the stock and liquidise until smooth. Continue until you have liquidised all the mixture.
Pour into a saucepan, add more stock until you have the consistency you want. Taste and season with a little black pepper.
Reheat thoroughly and sprinkle with chives for anyone who wants them!