Cream of celery and carrot soup

Tools required: food processor (e.g., Magic Bullet)

Main ingredients:

Celery bunch (try substituting other vegetables!)
Carrot
1 medium potato
Medium onion and 3 cloves of garlic
Sour cream or kefir - 1/4 to 1/2 cup (omit for vegan or use silken tofu)

Recommended flavoring:

Spices (e.g., pepper, turmeric, oregano)
Ginger
Laurel leaf or kaffir lime leaf
Basil leaves

About the ingredients:

It's easy to make a lot of this delicious soup and freeze it for later. I recommend you experiment with combining cooked with fresh ingredients. Mixing in a fresh ingredient adds some nutritional content, highlights some of the vegetable's distinctive flavour, and adds some texture variation.

Celery is high in potassium and promotes urinary health. Carrot contains lots of vitamin A and some vitamin E. It's said to be a remedy for diarrhoea, nervousness, asthma, skin disorders, and slowing some cancers. Onion is an antiseptic that helps fight infections in cold and flu season. Garlic is an antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal. It's good for the stomach. It is also said to fight certain types of cancer and reduce the risk of heart attack. Basil helps with fatigue and aids digestion. Ginger is good for the sore throat and reduces symptoms of nausea, fever, and maldigestion. (Source: Biggs, et al. Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruit)

Spices, such as turmeric, also add nutritional value to a meal.

Quick directions:

1. Cut and fry the vegetables with preferred spices/flavors
2. Add cup of water and simmer
3. Cool mixture until lukewarm or cool
3. Puree the mixture

Detailed directions:

Cut and fry the vegetables:
1. Put pan on medium heat with 2-3 table spoons olive oil
2. Cut up potato and carrot, and add to pan
3. While potato and carrot are frying, cut up 1/2 bunch of celery and 1 onion
4. Add celery, onion, spices and salt to pan (I prefer a pinch of turmeric and oregano)
5. A few minutes later, add chopped garlic (3 cloves) and 1 tsp grated ginger (or squeezed out juice). Add more if you like ginger, but too much can taste bitter.
6. Fry until potatoes start to soften, stirring occasionally

Add water and simmer:
7. Add laurel leaf and/or kaffir lime leaf
8. Add one cup of water (just enough to fill mixture)
9. Wait for 5 minutes while the mixture boils
10. Cool the mixture on the balcony (10-15 minutes at 10'C)

Cool mixture until lukewarm
11. Verify that pan contents are lukewarm or cool (Be careful!)

Puree the mixture:
12. Transfer contents to a food processor
13. Add a fresh stalk of celery (roughly chopped) and a few leaves of bail to taste
14. Add sour cream or kefir if using it
15. Puree until smooth

Serve hot or cold (I prefer hot)