Moroccan Carrot, Cauliflower and Apple Soup with Pistachio Cream

Preheat your oven to 400°F, and lay the pistachios on a small baking sheet. Place them in the oven until lightly browned and “toasted” smelling, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer the toasted pistachios to a small sauce pan, and cover by about 1 inch with water. Bring to a simmer on medium heat and simmer until they soften, about 35 minutes. Make sure to keep them covered with water, so add any to the pot as necessary while they simmer.

While the pistachios simmer, head the olive oil on medium heat in a large pan. Add in the carrots, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add in the chopped apples, cauliflower, onion, cumin powder, cinnamon, paprika, allspice, salt and a few good twists of pepper, and stir until the spices and oil evenly coats all the vegetables. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the vegetable broth into the pan and stir. Cover the pan and simmer until the vegetables/apples are tender, about 20 minutes.

Once the pistachios are soft, drain them and then add them into a high-powered blender, along with the water. Blend on medium speed (or “chop” on my blender) for 5 minutes, and then onto the highest speed (“puree”) for 2 minutes until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the blender every few minutes. You may have a few little chunks of pistachios, but they will get blended up once you add the vegetable mixture.

Transfer all of the softened vegetable mixture, along with the broth, into the blender and blend on high speed until thick, creamy and smooth. **

Garnish with cilantro and chopped pistachios and DEVOUR.

NOTES:

*To make the pistachio cream, you will need a high-powered blender. If you don’t have one, this soup still tastes GREAT without the cream. Just chop some pistachios and put them on top of the soup, as a garnish, when you serve it.

** I loved how thick and creamy this soup was, but Mr. FFF thought it was maybe just a bit too thick. Feel free to add more vegetable broth if you want it thinner.