My Purple Soup, it has to be said, is entirely a happy mistake in it's fabulousness. When I started to cook my soup I had no idea the purple carrots would take over the entire colour scheme of my dish but when they did, it was totally amazeballs!

My main ingredients were sourced from my day out at the brand new, ship, shape & shiny farmers market - Foragers at Bulli, in NSW. It is a fantastic new market that focuses on local produce and amazing fresh food! They also have music to shop by and child friendly spaces for the kidlets.

They have a great mix of stalls specialising in various types of goodies including local honey by Backyard Honey Australia and Field To Feast (who sell local, organic fresh fruit and veg) which is where I bought the fabulous carrots I used for my soup.

Lovely organic veg from Field To Feast. These are the carrots I used in my soup.

They also have stalls (and caravans!) selling yummy noms for their patrons including La Creperie Sarazine, who provide gluten free options as well.

Foragers also have an artisan element once a month, on the second Sunday of the month. I spotted this work by Pinky Makaude, which I fell in love with. They also had preloved clothing and lots of other crafty goodness.

The Miss Bowerbird Caravan gives a fun, nostalgic touch to the market!

So onto the Soup!

Soup is one of the easiest, and more nutritious, foods you can make, so definitely give it a go! If you can't find purple carrots, don't despair. This recipe would work just as well with the regular orange variety.

Purple carrots are packed full of antioxidants, which is why they have recently had a revival, although purple carrots are actually a very ancient variety.

The ingredients for the soup are simple:

2 Purple Carrots

2 Orange Carrots

1 Large Sweet Potato

2 Tbsp Shredded Ginger (I actually cheated and used the semi-dried pre-prepared version for this but fresh would be even better if you can get it)

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

3/4 Cup Coconut/Almond Milk

Salt (to taste)

Thyme or Basil (to garnish)

The ingredients for the Vegan Sour Cream

2 Tbsp Coconut yoghurt (I used Alpine Coconut Yoghurt. You can find this in all Woolworths supermarkets)

1 Tbsp Marigold Engevita Nutritional Yeast (I got this from my local health food shop)

1 Tbsp water

1/2 Teaspoon salt

Making The Soup

Roughly chop your carrots and sweet potato into large chunks. (I peeled my sweet potato but not my carrots. I prefer to leave skins on my veg unless it's absolutely necessary so I can get all of the extra goodness and fibre in the skins). Pop all the chunks in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, and then simmer until carrots are soft (about 20 mins). The sweet potato will cook first so don't worry if it starts to fall apart before the carrots are done.

By now the purple will have taken over the entire pot!

BEWARE I got splattered with purple when I did this next step! Make sure you wear an apron!

Drain off some of the excess water but leave a little in the saucepan. Using a hand held blender 'Waz' up the carrots and sweet potato with the coconut/almond milk.

I like my soup quite thick so I didn't add a lot of liquid to it but if you like creamier soup you could add coconut cream or more coconut milk to the mix.

Sprinkle over the ginger and cinnamon and stir it in, then 'Waz' up the mixture again. Ginger is largely 'to taste' so add a bit, taste, then add more if required. I probably added in about 2 tbsps.

The end result was a nice thick, sweet, PURPLE soup full of 'Nom Tastique' yumminess!

** You might need to heat the soup back through on a low heat before serving.

Making the Vegan Sour Cream

To finish it off I garnished with some 'vegan' sour cream I concocted using coconut yoghurt, nutritional yeast and salt.

Add all the ingredients (as listed above) into a cup and whisk. You can adjust the consistency by varying the amount of water.

And Voila! With a dash of vegan sour cream and some thyme, I had the most amazeballs 'Purple Soup' I have ever had! :P

See...not a drop left!

Foragers Market is on every Sunday 9-2 at the Bulli Showground. For more info check out their site here http://www.foragersmarkets.com/ or find them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/foragersmarket