This post was inspired by a very dear friend of mine, Christina from Fasanenhof, who asked me recently “when I was finally posting one of my favorite recipes again”?!! …. I went straight into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and checked the latest vegetable supply I had received from my weekly vegetable box.

Winter is the season of root vegetables – beets, carrots, turnips, parsnip, celeriac, potatoes, onions, ginger and garlic. This week my box contained a couple of beautiful swedes and carrots, which I made the star of a dish I’d rather call a meal then a soup, with two of my favorite spices shining through – the most fragrant of all, nutmeg, and the amazingly pretty star anise. Their distinct taste comes together with the earthy taste of the swedes, infused with a few drops of freshly squeezed orange juice to make something extremely satisfying and soothing.

I served this with a handful of toasted almond flakes and a good sprinkle of virgin olive oil. And of course, in the tradition of my home country Germany, I completed this dish with some freshly baked rye bread with a crust.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 1 tbsp of high quality coconut oil
• 2 onions (diced)
• 2 cloves of garlic (optionally replace with Asafoetida)
• 1 thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 6 medium sized carrots (peeled and diced)
• 2 large swedes (diced)
• 1 tbsp golden tumeric
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 50-100 ml orange juice (freshly squeezed)
• 2 star anise
• 1 pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 800 ml of vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Topping:

Sprinkle with toasted almond flakes, extra virgin olive oil, and optional a few lime wedges for squeezing.

Preparation:

Get out a pot, fry the onion in the coconut oil until soft, then add the finely diced garlic. Add the spices (except for the star anise and the nutmeg) first, roast them for a couple of minutes, making sure not to burn them. Add the orange juice to loosen everything from the bottom of the pot.

Now add the chunks of carrots and swedes, followed by the grated ginger, stir the mixture for a couple of minutes, finally adding the broth. Make sure all the vegetables are well covered – otherwise add some extra water. Finally add the star anise and nutmeg, and cook the vegetables for about 15-20 minutes until they have softened a bit.

Before you finish off by using a blender to make it into a creamy soup, make sure to remove the star anise from the pot!

Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, and serve with a generous sprinkle of olive oil, toasted almond flakes, some lime wedges to squeeze on top, and some fresh bread with a good crust.