Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup W/Lime

This recipe is gluten free, fructose free, and vegan
Since discovering my fructose malabsorption 6 months ago, I've had a very hard time in the kitchen. I have my familiar meals that I make like a broken record, but as our taste buds become immune to them and my belly begs for more, I think I'm finally comfortable enough with my food intolerances to break out of my shell and start experimenting with taste and texture again.

One of my favorite soups of all time, is a mulligatawny. I used to make it so much that I probably could have made it in my sleep. The unique flavor was hypnotizing. Have you ever had a good mulligatawny? Because if you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Its been a year or longer since I've had a bowl. Today, as the craving came over me, I went over the list of ingredients in my head, and of course, to my dismay, 3/4 of them contain fructose.

Fructose malabsorption is tricky. It effects everyone differently. There is a long list of "maybe" foods, that we all individually have to try out in order to know if we can tolerate it or not. For me, since I've been testing my maybe's for half a year now, I've got a good idea of what my NO list is. All of the fructose free recipes that I'll post here on my blog, contain what I've found to be safe for me. I wouldn't consider my case mild, one bite of something on my no list will take me out of the game for well over 24 hours, but don't take my word for what you can and cannot have. For me, table sugar is ok. For you, it might not be. Please keep that in mind? Proceed with caution *wink*...

Oh, but what I was saying though! I wanted to get as close to the taste of a mulligatawny as possible. I knew that whatever soup I made wouldn't quite compare. I hadn't had the real thing in so long though, that maybe whatever the differences were, they might not matter?


Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup W/Lime

Ingredients:
-4 cups homemade broth (making your own broth is essential, for somebody with fructose malabsorption. box'd and canned broths contain onion, and onion is an enemy for a lot of us)
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-8 carrots, peeled and chopped
-2 large sweet potatoes (or 3 small), baked in an oven at 375 for 1 hour
-1 teaspoon cumin
-1/2 teaspoon coriander
-pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
-1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
-sprinkle of sugar
-juice of 1 lime

Directions:
-Bake sweet potatoes.
-Heat your broth and oil in a large pot.
-While your broth is warming, peel and cut carrots.
-Blend your raw carrots and sweet potatoes together in a blender. Use a measuring cup or ladle to scoop out some of your warmed broth, to use as the liquid for your mixing. I blended all of my ingredients in two batches, so not to overwhelm my blender.
-Pour your puree into the pot with your broth. Heat over Low/Medium heat. Stir constantly.
-Slowly add all of your spices, but wait on the sugar and lime.
-Cook cook cook, stir stir stir.
-After you've heated your soup long enough for you to think its done, remove it from the heat, juice your lime over the pot, sprinkle in a pinch or two of sugar, stir stir stir, and then you're done!
-I served my soup with homemade cornbread (Pamela's gluten free), and it was a big hit.

Ok so maybe our picky 3 year old was a little reluctant to gobble it up- the flavors were a lot more vibrant than what shes used to. We held off on giving her the cornbread, to ensure that she ate her veggies (come on, its orange!). The more spoonfuls she had, the more bites of cornbread she got for dipping. It all worked out in the end.

I liked to break off little bits of the cornbread and set it on top of a full spoonful. Yum yum yum.

Christopher ate a bowl and a half. I only managed to get through half a bowl, and couldn't even finish my bread. It was just too filling for this Mama. And we've got probably a bowl and half leftover for tomorrow. That's enough for both me and Eleanore to eat it for lunch, but considering how rough it was for her tonight, I probably won't make her try it again tomorrow, haha.

And this guy... he got off easy. He ate quite a bit of soup actually, more than I expected, but then the "my teeth hurt!" fussing started up (come on teeth, give us all a break!), and somehow (ahem, Mama), he got his hands on a frozen waffle. Chomp chomp.

*Notes:
-We make big batches of homemade broth, and then freeze them in muffin tins and ice trays. After they're frozen, we put them in large labeled zip lock bags, that way when we need broth for a recipe, no matter what the amount, we always have some on hand.

-Having a good blender or food processor when cooking from scratch is a big deal. I don't know about you, but I couldn't go a day without my Vita Mix. If you're new to the no-fructose game, get your hands on something that can blend with the speed of wind 10.