Ayurveda Inspired Carrot & Ginger Cleansing Soup

Here’s a vibrant, warming, and deeply balancing Ayurveda Inspired Spiced Carrot & Ginger Cleansing Soup — perfect for gentle detox, boosting digestion (Agni), and calming the mind. This is especially ideal for early spring, post-cleansing, or anytime your body craves lightness and clarity 

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs carrots peeled and sliced into rounds
• 1 parsnip, peeled and sliced
• 3 to 4 inch of fresh ginger, sliced
• ¾ cup yellow lentils
• 1 small jalapeno
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• Pinch of cumin powder
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sliced toasted almonds, optional
• Pickled ginger, thinly sliced purple carrots, radishes, turnips, herbs, etc., for garnish
• 1 bunch of Swiss chard, leaves and stems separated

Directions:

In a large pot, heat some olive oil and sauté the carrots, chard stems, parsnips, and ginger. Add a pinch of salt to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add about 5 cups of water or vegetable broth, bring to a boil, and add the lentils and turmeric powder, and cumin powder. Cook for about 30 minutes. Add a few pinches of salt to taste. Immersion blend the soup once the carrots are tender and the lentils are cooked. 

Meanwhile, make the pesto. 

In a pan over low-medium heat, add some olive oil.  Then, add the Swiss chard leaves, salt, and 2 cloves of garlic.  Sauté until softened. Once cooled, place in a food processor with a handful of pistachios, a squeeze of lime juice, and a pinch of salt and pulse until you get a pesto texture. If the texture is dry, add some olive oil to the food processor/blender and pulse.  A thin, smooth consistency is best for adding to the soup.  You can add more oil or a little water if the pesto is too thick. 

Serve the soup

Ladle the soup into bowls. With a large spoon, swirl some of the pesto in large circular motions. Swirl in a spoonful of olive oil if you’d like on top of the pesto.   Forming an arc on one side of the bowl, first place thinly sliced radishes or turnips. Then add some pickled ginger, herbs, scallions, sesame seeds, edible flowers (blue looks so pretty with the orange soup), olive oil, etc.