Today’s Beauty Eats recipe is about healthy comfort food. If you’re a new reader, you might be wondering what the Beauty Eats series is all about. The image on the left sums it up perfectly – it’s all about eating skin-friendly ingredients in delicious ways.

January can be a rather dull month since the holiday festivities are over and it’s the dead of winter. The best way to brighten things up on a cold, dreary day is with some colourful comfort food. Personally, I love the thought of warming up with some vegetable soup on a weeknight since it doesn’t require much work and you’ll get a few servings of veggies too. We all know how hard that is! This bright orange soup is made with roasted carrots and cauliflower, but since plain vegetable soup can get a little boring sometimes, I took some inspiration from the East. The soup also includes fresh ginger and coconut milk! How’s that for some fusion food?  And to top it off, this soup is chock full of skin-friendly ingredients. Read on for the recipe and see what Connie from the Beauty Nerd has to say about this soup.

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Whenever I make soup, I usually just boil the vegetables in the pot and blend them once they have softened. I never really thought of roasting them beforehand, until I came across a recipe in magazine that was made with slow roasted vegetables. It looked divine! But who has the time to wait hours for something to roast? I certainly don’t have the patience! So for this recipe, I roasted the carrots and cauliflower in under an hour. Roasting really does add a nice flavour since the vegetables get a chance to slightly caramelize. That hint of sweetness makes the soup taste even better. Try it out sometime!

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Can your soup really fight wrinkles, inflammation and harmful toxins? Yes, it’s possible – and here’s why:

Carrots: 1 cup of raw carrots contains approximately 685% of the recommended daily value for vitamin A, the vitamin that helps combat wrinkles (read: retinol is a form of vitamin A). Carrots are also rich in carotenoids, which protects the skin from harmful free radicals.

Cauliflower: In need of some detox after all the holiday indulgences? Well, consider cauliflower your new BFF. Cauliflower is loaded with vitamin C, most of the B vitamins and phytonutrients that stimulate enzymes which facilitate the detoxification process in your body. Expect to also see a reduction in skin puffiness and inflammation.

Ginger: Because ginger contains potent anti-inflammatory compounds called gingerols that are also excellent antioxidants, ginger is a great beauty food for those who have skin problems caused by inflammation, namely acne and psoriasis.

Red Onion: Don’t discount onions as just a flavor enhancer in your recipes! Onions contain vitamin C, quercetin and isothiocyanates, which help calm inflammation. These antioxidants also protect against the degradation of collagen – the support structure in your skin. If you have acne, onions also contain chromium that will help your fight off those pesky zits!

Garlic: Garllic contains compounds that keep inflammation at bay. One ounce of garlic contains about 15% of the recommended daily value of vitamin C, which is responsible for stimulating collagen production and boosting the effectiveness of other antioxidants!

Coconut Milk (light): Coconut milk boasts a slew of vitamins, minerals and electrolytes that can help boost your immunity and thus your skin’s defense mechanisms against environmental toxins. Although coconut milk contains saturated fat (which is also why we opt for the light version), it is made up of short-chain and long-chain fatty acids that tend to be quickly converted by the body into energy rather than being stored as fat.

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