Potato Pancakes, Carrot Soup & Greek Yogurt

Cooking on a Budget – You need some basic ingredients plus some killer, but not hard to find, spices! These recipes are a great combo together – dip the potato cakes in the greek yogurt AND the soup! Your stomach will love you….

Here’s what you’ll need:

Indian Inspired Potato Pancakes
3 small-medium grated potatoes (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 egg white
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon of curry
1/2 teaspoon salt

Carrot Soup
2 lb of carrots, finely chopped – I just used a ton (not literally) of carrots that we had around
1 onion – chopped
2 tablespoons ground ginger (or more depending on your taste buds)
1 tablespoon garlic powder or 3 cloves fresh garlic
2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil
4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth
1/3 cup flour (or more) used for thickening the soup

Greek Yogurt
3-5 oz. of plain greek yogurt
1 red bell pepper – finely chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder

1. Start with the soup! Chop everything for the soup – onions, garlic, and carrots. Cook garlic and onions in olive oil until clear.
2. Add your stock, carrots, and ginger. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer until the carrots are tender, stirring occasionally.
3. While the soup is simmering get started on the rest. Grate your potatoes and garlic in a bowl, mix in curry and salt and put aside.
4.  Chop the red bell pepper and mix into greek yogurt along with paprika and garlic powder. Place in fridge.
5. Once the carrots are tender in the soup, you can either blend it parts at a time, or if you don’t have a blender, like me….smash the carrots with a spoon. Taste and add more ginger if you prefer; ideally it will have a bit of a spicy aftertaste.
6. If you didn’t blend, it’s not going to get as thick, this is where you add flour.  Place about half of the 1/3 of a cup of flour  into a cup and whisk with a little of water. As soon as it is smooth, add to the soup and continue this with the second part of the flour. Bring the soup to a boil again to allow the flour to do it’s job…thicken it. Once it boils, reduce the soup to a simmer again.
7. While it comes to a boil, separate the egg white and mix into grated potato mixture.
8. Heat a frying pan on medium with olive oil and place your potatoes in golf ball sized sections, and flatten into a pancake. Fry each side about 3-5 minutes until brown.

Serve and enjoy! This served two of us with some soup leftovers.