Super-fast tomato and carrot soup (cheaty)

Tonight's dinner, cooked by self.

Boil 500 g of sliced/chopped carrot (this is where the cheating comes in: I bought a bag of peeled and sliced carrot. Wouldn't have cooked otherwise.) in approx. 500 ml of vegan vegetable stock add Herbes de Provence, chilli flakes and ground paprika, all to taste. Also add approx. 2 tablespoons of tomato pure, one clove of garlic, crushed, and 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar**.

Boil until carrot is done (anything from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how old and big the carrots were and how finely they're chopped), pure, grind in some black pepper. I also shredded (you can chop, if you've the time) in some fresh basil from the windowsill, and added two teaspoons of good extra virgin olive oil, for flavor and good fats.

Eat with a good book, and perhaps some nice bread. There's enough to share if you must. I didn't.

*Due to effort involved, this wasn't going to go in until I asked myself "what would Nigella do?". Grate in some garlic with that nifty little grater of hers is what she would do, and as I don't have a little grater, the garlic crusher was the next best thing. You can also finely chop the garlic, but that'll take longer and be more work and washing-up. Won't be as nice completely without, though. Having said that, had I had some garlic pure or paste in a tube, I would've gone for that.

**Careful here - I overdid it slightly, you don't actually want to get the flavor of the vinegar as such, I just find it can round tastes up nicely, especially in tomatoey dishes.