This carrot, ginger, and cashew blend is one of my go-to soup bases to work with. It takes to a wide range of flavors very well, and can easily turn into a very unique and insanely flavorful soup. If you can't find the Pacific brand, you can use any carrot soup base blend in the ginger and cashew yourself, though it has been fairly easy for me to find in most cities throughout the years. Sometimes it's in the organic section, other times it's with all of the other boxed soups in the main grocery aisle*.

My latest concoction plays up the wonderful combo of a nice fruity habanero sauce with the tameness of carrot, into a nice playful blend. The bursts of savory, spicy, and freshness tie this all together into a soup that stands on it's own, no pun needed.

On the note of habanero sauces:

For this particular flavor I went with a surprising choice. I'm a huge fan of Cholula hot sauces, but find their habanero one of their more disappointing flavors, as there are very strong fruit punchy notes. When I first made this soup, that's all I had, and I was winging it. Those fruit punch notes went surprisingly awesome with this soup base, so I ran with it! When I made my test run for this contest, I tried one of my fancy-schmancy, eight dollar habanero hot sauces, and it was a complete let down. So, more good news on the easy-to-acquire ingredient front: Cholula Habanero, the underdog hero of this soup, is widely available on shelves and online, and is around three to four bucks for a bottle. If you'd rather use a different habanero sauce, as weird as this sounds, I'd suggest using a splash of fruit punch to give it the missing notes.**

Supplies

Cookware & Utensils:

- 1 medium sized pot

- 2 knives (one on the heavy duty side, one for finer chopping)

- 1 slotted spoon (or small mesh strainer)

- 1 small cutting board

- 1 stirring spoon

Foodstuffs:

- *1 box of Pacific Carrot, Ginger, Cashew Soup (or similar) as a base

- **Habanero hot sauce (Cholula brand preferred for this, but any will work)

- Olive oil

- 1 or 2 cloves of fresh garlic

- Small amount of fresh cilantro

- 1 to 2 handfuls of fresh basil

- 1 or 2 small sticks of lemongrass (or 1-2 Tbsp lemongrass paste)

- 1 cup of unsalted peanuts

- 2 cups of unsweetened coconut flakes

- 1 lime

- 2 red chilies (fresh or frozen, optional)

Spices:

- Pumpkin pie spice blend

- Curry powder

Step 1: Start Choppin'

A) Mince 1-2 cloves of garlic

B) Peel the lemongrass and give it an all around whack! to increase the potency. Use a heavy duty knife to cut it into easily strainable chunks, as shown. As an alternative, you can use 1-2 Tbsp of lemongrass paste from a tube or jar (the tubes are usually found in common produce departments and jars in specialty stores, or online).

C) Take 5-6 basil leaves and roll them tightly into a tube shape, and finely chop. If you'd rather be rustic and tear them, that's fine too. Surprisingly, common sweet basil works with this soup very well, and I actually prefer it over Thai basil here, but Thai basil is pretty great in it too. This is yet another way this soup can be super flexible.

D) Finely chop two red chilies (fresh or frozen), seeded, or as is. (These are always optional)

Step 2: Pour the Soup Into a Medium Sized Pot

Pour the entire contents of the soup base into a medium sized pot, and bring to a simmer at a low to medium heat.

Step 3: Lightly Saute Garlic in Olive Oil, Add Lemongrass to Soup

- As the soup climbs up to it's light simmer, toss the lemongrass into the pot.

- Saute your garlic in olive oil lightly on a low to medium heat.

- Toss in that garlic, and let's simmer for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Step 4: Strain Out the Lemongrass

Nothing takes you out of the moment of a soup's flavor burst like taking a big bite of a woody lemongrass stalk. Strain those out after they've done their thing as aromatics, they've done all they can do here.

You can use a slotted spoon or a mesh strainer. Any of these types will do, but I prefer the guy on the right.

Or, as noted before, you can skip this whole step if you went the path of lemongrass paste, which tastes just as great as the fresh thing in this setting.

Step 5: Add Chopped Basil, Cilantro Stems, and Chilies

Step 6: Stir in Your Spices and Sauce

Stir in a rounded 1 Tbsp of pumpkin pie spice

Stir in a rounded 1 Tbsp of curry powder while you're at it. You can eyeball it if you want to play with the flavors.

Add 3-4 drizzles of the Cholula Habanero Sauce and stir.

As an alternate, if you're using another brand of habanero sauce, this is where I'd add a tiny splash of fruit punch to mimic the specific flavor of that Cholula.

Simmer for an additional 7 minutes, stirring frequently.

(Note: I haven't tried the alternate hot sauce/fruit punch method yet, so if you do, let me know how it turns out.)