Lately I have really been noticing how bright the evenings are getting and it makes me very happy and positive! I am planning to do loads of hiking and exploring nature this year so I can’t wait until the days are little bit longer to facilitate this better. I am yet to see my first snowdrop, but they are out, and the other spring flowers will be following soon. Although sadly the seasons are getting increasingly altered -I did a double take when I spotted my favourite tree, cherry, fully blossoming in the middle of december so perhaps I shouldn’t be using flowers to gauge the arrival of spring!

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Although spring is somewhat in the air, it’s not quite in the weather yet, and here in Ireland the coldest winter weather can last into March so I am still making lots of warming winter dishes like this creamy roasted root vegetable soup. Root veggies such as these are in season here at the moment, making them plentiful and cheap. Roasting the vegetables and using fresh herbs instead of dried really adds flavour to this soup, while the cashew nuts add a creamy texture along with some extra protein. I brought a big tub of this in to work for my lunches last week. I had no wheat free bread so I dipped dark rye crispbreads in to it which was delicious!

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I made this soup in my new high powered blender, my new favourite thing! I’ve been having green smoothies every morning for breakfast made with my own homemade almond milk, and love making my own blend of almond butter with a hint of coconut. I had been wanting to get a Vitamix for months, but I couldn’t justify the expense. I ended up buying a similar blender for half the price, but with all the same functionality. Time will tell if I would have been better off buying the Vitamix but my brand has a seven year warranty so that sounds good to me! I think that the extra money would just have be paying for the brand name!

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Obviously I am going to be using my blender for a lot of recipes from now on, but I still want my recipes to be adaptable and accessible,, so wherever possible I will adapt the recipe to be made with more standard kitchen equipment also. Take this soup for example -I made mine in the blender but you can make it on the stove also. If you don’t have a high powdered blender to blend the cashews, use unsweetened almond milk instead to add some creaminess. I list both ways in the recipe below.

INGREDIENTS: