Zanzibar-inspired Carrot and Coconut Soup

This Zanzibar-inspired carrot and coconut soup is delicious, creamy and tasty. My body literally screams for it in autumn when the new crop of carrots appears in supermarkets. The recipe is from a friend's cookbook, Sigrun of CafeSigrun (remember the fun I had when helping her with the manuscript?). Sigrun has travelled frequently to East-Africa and this soup was inspired by days spent on the island of Zanzibar: She was sitting with a bowl of carrot soup admiring the view of the Indian Ocean, the air filled with the aroma from the Forodhani Food Market, in the historical city of Stone Town. The soup is vegan, easy to make (you need a hand-held blender or a food processor), and it will provide you with essential vitamins and dietary fibre.

ZANZIBAR CARROT AND COCONUT SOUP

2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
a small piece fresh ginger
300 g organic carrots (2 cups)
150 g sweet potatoes (¾ cup)
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 organic vegetable stock cubes
750 ml water (3 cups)
150 ml coconut milk (5 oz)
½-1 teaspoon sea/Himalayan salt
optional: pepper to taste
optional: 7-10 saffron strands

Rinse the carrots (brush if needed) and peel the other vegetables. Chop everything coarsely. (Peel or scrape the carrots if they are not organic.)

In a saucepan, heat the coconut oil over medium heat. Add onion and fry until tender. Add garlic and ginger and fry for a few more minutes before stirring in the curry powder (I prefer hot but mild is fine).

Stir in the carrots and sweet potatoes. Add the water and vegetable stock cubes, increase the heat and stir. Bring to the boil and stir in ½ teaspoon of salt. Reduce the heat, cover and let it simmer on low heat for 25-30 minutes.

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the coconut milk and saffron strands. Use a hand-held blender to purée the soup until you have a smooth texture. Be careful, the soup is very hot: Hold the blender straight up and down and press the button when the bottom part of the blender is in the soup (if using a food processor/liquidizer, allow the soup to cool slightly before puréeing it in batches).

Finally, reheat gently to simmering point and season with salt and pepper, if needed. Serve the soup with freshly baked bread or bread buns.

Uppskrift á íslensku

Arrival of autumn

Early morning yesterday I quickly went into the garden and for a moment sensed the arrival of autumn when I noticed the fading colours of the hydrangeas. Without wishing to sound dramatic, I almost felt a pang in my heart because the weather has been so wonderful lately - the proper Indian summer I wished for - and I'm not quite ready for colder days. It's a luxury to still being able to enjoy a cup of coffee on the sunny patio, but it seems to me that from this day forward I will be drinking it inside and looking out the window.

The arrival of autumn was very different when we lived in Iceland, where it arrives earlier and more rapidly. Going berry picking was essential and driving to the Thingvellir National Park to see nature dressed in its finest autumn apparel. Over here big and juicy blueberries from Poland arrive in stores, apple and plum trees bear fruit, and hydrangea shrubs start to fade well before the leaves change their colours.

For me another sign of autumn is Virginia Woolf. In August last year I started reading her diaries and this summer having just read a few pages of her diaries, and letters, I feel the need again to read a few entries before going to sleep. It feels as if she is always writing by the fireplace, which is particularly comforting. Speaking of Woolf! This weekend I saw new Woolf paperback editions from Vintage Classics. The Finnish artist Aino-Maija Metsola illustrated the covers (for a few years she has designed for Marimekko) and I think it was love at first sight when I saw the cover of Mrs Dalloway. The other books in the Woolf series are The Waves, The Years, Orlando, To the Lighthouse and A Room of One's Own that also contains the sequel Three Guineas.

Paris: one year ago at the Palais Royal

I woke up this morning with Paris on my mind and when I looked at the date I remembered with a smile that I had arrived in Paris on this day, exactly one year ago. It so happened that I had some photos in my files from that trip that I hadn't posted on the blog. The one above shows the mood at Le Nemours café, which is right by the Palais Royal in the 1st district. We didn't sit down to have coffee, as we had just enjoyed a lovely lunch and dessert at a restaurant on the Left Bank. But it was pouring down rain and the Palais Royal passages surrounding the gardens provided shelter.