A blank canvas for practicing your garnishing skills

Sometimes the simpler the recipe, the easier it is to overcomplicate it. Case in point: carrot-ginger soup, whose flavours often get elbowed out with the addition of other vegetables, fruits or excessive dairy. But this simple, creamy, pared-down version is velvety-smooth with clean carrot flavour and subtle ginger background notes.

Carrots are a long-lasting pantry staple, and all it takes are three of them to form the base of this soup. We used ginger as the key aromatic, which eliminated the need to add even onion or shallot, cutting down our ingredient list drastically.

A small amount of milk adds subtle richness without dulling the flavours. With the flavours in check, we made a meal out of this warm bowl of comfort by adding some hearty toppings. If you don't have a blender, an immersion blender or a food processor would also work.