Carrot and ginger soup with caraway crackers

Warming soup for a winter day!

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   Roughly chop up the shallots and carrots. Fry the shallots in a little olive oil until they soften and begin to turn golden. Add the carrots to the pan, pour over the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat, add the ginger and lemon zest and leave to simmer for about 30-40 minutes.
   
   While the soup is cooking, make the crackers. Preheat the oven to 220C and pop a baking sheet into warm with the oven. Mix the flour with the sea salt, butter or oil, maple syrup and caraway seeds. Rub the butter into the flour until it is all incorporated or mix in the oil with a fork. Slowly add about 50ml cold water, stirring to form a firm dough. You don’t want the dough to be wet, so just add enough water to allow the dough to form into a ball. It may not seem enough to start with but as you bring it together it will appear to become stickier and 50ml should make it the right consistency.
   
   Roll the dough out as thinly as you can and cut into cracker sized rectangles – the thinner you roll it, the crunchier the crackers will be! I never worry too much about getting an even size and shape which makes it a quick process and avoids you having to keep rerolling to use all the dough. Prick crackers all over with a fork and lay them on baking paper on to the hot baking sheet. Pop in the oven for about 12min or until just turning brown. Cool on a wire rack. Note the crackers crisp up during cooling so don’t worry if they seem a little soft when you remove them from the oven.
   
   Take the soup off the heat and blend with a hand blender. Season well with sea salt. I recommend not adding pepper as the ginger has quite a kick by itself. Serve with the crackers or with some crusty bread.