Ginger Carrot Soup

I'm an unabashed sweets lover but I've had enough sugary things for a while. Now all things savory and healthier are calling me and I'm wanting to serve those foods that have more nutrition.

When I told Ole Sweetie-Pi we were having ginger carrot soup he nearly had apoplexy.  That piece of information prompted him to lift the lid of the soup pot, stir the ingredients around into a whirling vortex, taste a sample, grimace in pain, and then go hide in the living room. Honestly, he can be so dramatic.  It didn't stop him from eating a whole bowl of it though when I served it to him, grins.

This ginger carrot soup is subtly warm from the fresh ginger and pepper, with a pleasing sweetness from the fresh carrots and orange juice. The onions, I think, help to balance out the spice and the sweet.  This pureed into a nice thick soup, though to be honest, I only used one box of  vegetable stock, which was less than the five cups called for.  I wasn't about to open up a second box just a cup of stock. I could have made up the difference with water, I suppose, but I found the thickness of the soup to be pleasing and just went with it. 

I would and will definitely make this again. I'm pretty sure after eating all those carrots I'll be able to read in the dark without a flashlight.  Ole Sweetie-Pi said he could pass on eating this again, but I don't know.  I think he's still recovering from the shock.

Ginger Carrot Soup

Earthbound Farm Organic

2 tablespoons canola oil or olive oil

1 piece (3 inches long) fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped

4 cups peeled, sliced carrots

5 cups vegetable stock

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

Pinch of ground nutmeg

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Sour cream, as garnish

In a large sauce pan over medium heat, heat the oil.  Add the ginger and the onion and cook until the onion is translucent. 

Add the carrots, vegetable stock, and orange juice and bring to a boil.  Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low, allowing the soup to simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.

Puree the soup using an immersion blender or allow the soup to cool slightly and puree in batches in a blender. 

Return the soup to the pot and add the seasonings:   the pinch of nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.  To serve, add a small dollop of sour cream on top.

For more information about making this soup ahead or serving it cold, click on the link I provided under the recipe name.

Flemish Carrot Soup

Spring has flirted with us for a day or two, seducing us with promises of more as we stood outside on the back deck, basking in the first warm rays. And just as suddenly, the wind picked up, the skies were heavy with snow, and my thoughts turned to something warm and satisfying.

We're pretty simple folk here; not a whole lot of gourmet cooking in my kitchen. There are certain foodstuffs that I keep; for vegetables, typically carrots, potatoes, onions, scallions, celery. I brought out several cookbooks, and settled into my Everybody Eats Well in Belgium cookbook by Ruth Van Waerebeek with Maria Robbins. And there I saw it. I was hesitant to try it, as the soups we eat tend to be chunky with vegetables with maybe some pasta thrown in for good measure and this soup was pureed, of all things. Would Sweetie-Pi even try this? he can be so particular.

I shouldn't have worried; after the first mouthful Sweetie-Pi matched me spoonful for spoonful. This soup is sophisticated. It is sublime, velvety, earthy, rich. It's orange, classy in a beautiful bowl. It should be served to only your most discerning friends and family.

Flemish Carrot Soup

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 medium leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed well and sliced into thin rings **
1 large onion, sliced
2 cups chicken broth
4 cups water**
1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch slices
1 large baking potato, peeled and cubed
1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup milk, plus additional if needed
salt and ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
croutons

Melt the butter in a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and onions, cook, stirring until wilted, but not browned, about ten minutes

Add the chicken broth, water, carrots, potato, thyme and bay leaf. Cover, simmer until the vegetables are very soft, about 35 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool a little. Discard the bay leaf.

Puree the soup in small batches in a blender or food processor (or use a food emersion blender). Return the soup to the pot and stir in the milk, adding a little more if the soup is too thick for your liking. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Reheat gently and serve sprinkled with minced parsley. Serve the croutons in a bowl at the table.

** The recipe called for leeks, but in the variations section, it was suggested to use a bunch of scallions for the leeks. Scallions I had.

** Also the recipe calls for four cups of water. It is my strong personal opinion that water does not flavor anything. So I increased the chicken broth (I only had canned) to 4 cups and reduced the water to 2 cups.

As an aside, we love Agatha Christie's Belgium detective, Hercule Poirot. You just know that we had to talk in his clipped accent all the while we savored this soup. **sigh** So much for classy and sophisticated.

Carrot Bake

I really want to like vegetables. Really, I do. It's just that I think they can be so boring. Honestly, if I see one more stack of green beans with a sprinkling of slivered almonds, I think I'll...oh, I don't know...probably just eat them, and just be left wondering if that's all there is.

With Sweetie-Pi's finicky taste buds to consider, there aren't a whole lot of vegetables to expand on. However, that is part of the challenge and the fun for me. One vegetable that we both agree on is carrots. Outside of boiling them or eating them in sticks, what else is there? So, I dug out a half dozen of my favorite cookbooks and settled on one of my favorites, Best of the Best from New England.
I read cookbooks as if they were novels, savoring each recipe, imagining the taste as I read the ingredients and the directions. Sometimes I can read a recipe and know I've found a winner. I know I've seen this recipe a dozen times and have skipped past it every time. The recipe title "Carrot Bake" is just so ho-hum and mundane and uninspiring. When I read the recipe again, I read it with new eyes. I looked past the title and read the ingredients and started to imagine the flavors. Yummmm, I thought.
And now I have found a new favorite way to eat carrots. I like this so much I would serve it to guests. The picture doesn't even begin to do justice. There is a melody of flavor on the tongue. Carrots, onions, green peppers, and a hint of sweetness. And the rewarding part? Sweetie-Pi absolutely loved this!

I wish I could've taken a better picture for you. This was our early Valentine's dinner, carrot bake, filet mignon, and what should've been Duchess potatoes. (Those were a laughable failure; I will not be blogging about those until I get it right. In the meantime, just focus on the carrots. Pay no attention to that mysterious white blob on the right of your screen!) We had a nice Merlot, and a new twist on strawberry shortcake, that could easily become the way I make all future shortcakes.

Carrot Bake

9 or 10 large carrots

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/4 cup chopped onion

4 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar1/2 cup soft bread crumbs

Peel and slice the carrots. In a medium pan, with just enough water to cover the carrots, cook over medium heat until tender. Mash. (Now this is February in New Hampshire. The carrots were woody, unpleasantly fibrous, so I had to pulse them in a food processor.) Set aside.

In a small saute pan, melt four tablespoons of butter. Add the flour, milk, salt and sugar and cook until thickened. (To avoid lumps, I made a slurry with a portion of milk and all the flour and then added it into the pan with the vegetables and milk.) Add the reserved carrots and transfer all to a greased casserole dish. (Because there were a number of prepatory steps, I worked the recipe to this point, covered with plastic wrap, and then refrigerated, About 45 minutes before I wanted to serve dinner, I took the casserole out of the fridge and continued with the recipe.)

Melt the remaining one tablespoon of butter in a clean saute pan and add the bread crumbs. Toast the crumbs over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the crumbs are a golden brown. Then sprinkle those wonderful buttery, toasted crumbs over the casserole.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

Prepare to swoon.