Carrot orange soup with umami paste

Buying vegetables in bulk might be a good budget decision, but on the other hand, going through "eleventy million" carrots is not very appealing. If you have a freezer, and can batch cook, fine. My freezer is on a small size and packed full as it is. One kilo of carrots at a time is bulky enough for me.
Rummaging through the fridge the other day, I noticed that the carrots were looking decidedly despondent.
Soup was the obvious solution.

Carrot orange soup
Ingredients:
350g carrots, peeled and chopped
1tbsp olive oil
1 orange, zest and juice
80g red lentils
1 small potato
1tsp Swiss vegetable bouillon powder
1tbsp Clearspring Umami ginger paste

Peel and chop carrots, heat the oil in a frying pan, then fry the carrots until softened, stirring occasionally. Put the carrots in a medium sized pan, add the zest and juice of one orange, dry lentils, peeled and cubed potato, a tsp of vegetable bouillon powder or any vegetable stock cube you prefer, as well as a tbsp of Umami ginger paste.
Cover with boiling water, cook simmering for 20+ minutes until the carrots and potatoes are tender.
Blitz with a hand blender to a smooth creamy consistency. Season if necessary. You might need to add more hot water to the soup as it's cooking.
Serve hot with a dollop of soured cream or Greek style yogurt.

In this recipe I used Clearspring Organic Japanese Umami paste with ginger which is traditionally fermented with soya sauce and koji.
It has no added sugar, it's high in protein, fat free and vegan.
Squeeze straight from the pouch into sauces, stews and stir fries.
Ingredients: soya sauce, cultured rice, ginger.
You can substitute this paste for a mix of grated fresh ginger and soy sauce.

Disclosure: I received a couple of pouches of Clearspring umami paste for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.