Delicious carrot soup (Zuppa deliziosa di carote)

This is a recipe that barely fits here: it is not Italian and it is not really in season. Nevertheless it's delicious and we had it for our simple wedding party.
Credits go to my dear friend Monica who in turn took it from a community recipe book. I slightly modified the original recipe...

Ingredients

3-4 Idaho (starchy) potatoes
0.5 Kg carrots (about 1 lb)
a bunch of green onions or a 1 leak (chopped)
olive oil
soy sauce
almond butter
salt and pepper
paprika
(some milk)

Preparation
Peel and cut in pieces the potatoes and the carrots. Cook them until they will be tender. Strain them but keep the water.

In a separate pot sautée the onions in 2 tbs of olive oil. Add 2tbs of soy sauce and 1/2 cup of almond butter.

Puree the drained potatoes with the carrots and transfer in the pot with the almond butter mix. Adjust the thickness of the soup at your taste by adding some of the water you saved when you drained the potatoes and the carrots. If this will not be enough, use some water and/or milk.

Some paprika will add a nice colored accent without making it too hot... Adjust salt and black pepper. You may also want to add some raw soy sauce, and/or some grounded nutmeg.

Garnish with sliced almonds and a sprinkle of parpika.

This will serve 8.

Tips:

While cooking the potatoes and the carrots I kept the water to the minimum amount necessary to boil the vegetables. After adding all the cooking water to the mixture it was still way more dense that I liked it. I decided to keep it like this and put half of this 'concentrate' in the freezer, saving some space. I diluted the other half with milk and water until I was content of its texture and taste and I adjusted the salt at the end.

I am thinking to substitute butternut squash for carrots: it should be an interesting alternative. I will try it and let you know...

Soups are an excellent alternative for a healthy dinner and are particularly enjoyable in a cold winter night. We made a point of having meat for dinner no more than twice a week, one of the two being white meat. The other days we try to have seefood (at least twice a week, although in Wisconsin we do not have the vast choice we were used to in Italy), pasta, salads, soups, eggs, pizza, and/or torta salata (vegetable pies), depending on the season. In summer we indulge with a bbq on the weekend but we try to add vegetables on the grill and to alternate meat with salmon or trout.