I know I’ve professed my hatred for coconut before. The texture, smell, and flavor gets me – it makes me gag. I don’t have any traumatic childhood experiences with it so I don’t really know why. What’s weird though is that I love coconut milk – an important ingredient for today’s recipe post. I tried to look for answers but biology and chemistry is like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ *shrug*. I think it’s psychological and I have a hunch on why I have a positive association with it. The story is kinda lengthy…

I’ve made references to my disease in the past posts, but I’ve never gone into detail about it. Because May is Lupus Awareness Month, I need to tell you guys the shortened version of my story and it goes like this: I woke up one day, in my freshman year of high school, with intense pain and extremely stiff legs. I thought it was soreness from a game of golf or running so I didn’t think much of it. But the next day, I couldn’t walk. At all. Even when I tried to force myself, tears would be streaming down my face because the pain was indescribable. My parents took me to the emergency room and there, the doctor prescribed me 1000mg of ibuprofen – that’s not a typo – thinking that it would subdue the pain. I felt nothing so we got a second opinion and I ended up seeing a pediatric rheumatologist at the U of M. After tons of blood work and assessments, they gave me an official systemic lupus erythematosus diagnosis. (Later on, I will experience the disease’s neuropsychiatric symptoms. Bonus: you get a cool MRI scan of your brain.)

I am really grateful that I had access to great healthcare and the early stages of my disease were monitored by amazing medical professionals – I went into my appointments feeling anxious, but I always came out of it hopeful and wanting to devour the world. Like, I really wanted to eat everything because I eat more when I’m happy. You see, my mom or my dad would go to the appointments with me (even in college – I never went alone during the first six years of my diagnosis) and we would go out to eat afterwards. I got to pick the restaurant and for some reason, I always picked Thai or a place that had Asian-style soups. At one point, I was eating some kind of coconut milk soup after every appointment for almost the entire year. In college, I was all about the Thai curry soup at [unnamed fast-casual chain].

Now you know why I think I have a positive association with coconut milk.

This vegan-friendly soup recipe has coconut milk, carrot, and a touch of ginger. The fragrant marriage of flavors will make you (~‾⌣‾)~ *dance*! It’s especially perfect for cold and cloudy spring days, something that we will apparently be experiencing this week in Minnesota.

For 4 servings:

• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
  
• 1 tbsp. Madras curry powder
• 1 garlic clove, minced
  
• 2 tsp. freshly grated ginger
• ¼ tsp. ground white pepper
  
• ½ c. chopped yellow onion
• 1 ½ lbs. carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 c. vegetable broth
• 1 c. coconut milk

In a medium skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add curry powder, garlic, ginger, white pepper, and onions. Cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Transfer the curry onion mixture, carrots, and a cup of broth to a blender – you may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender. Puree until mostly smooth and creamy – there will be mealy bits from the carrots in there. Strain mixture into a bowl, by using a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth – you’ll probably have some carrot and ginger bits leftover. Transfer soupy mixture to a soup pot over medium-high heat. Stir in remaining broth and coconut milk. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the temperature down to medium and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Add some color by garnishing it with fresh green onions, chives, or chopped cilantro!

If you’re feeling experimental, you can use the leftover carrot pulp for:

• Veggie burger
  
• Cakes
• Crackers
• Granola bars
• Bread

For more information, visit the Lupus Foundation of America.

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