Carrot Soup
My wife suggested that I post one of my Carrot Soup recipes. For anyone interested, here is my recipe:
(It is a little long winded, but I am not sure how many of you guys know how to the use anything other than a microwave when cooking. I made this recipe explicit).
If, by some long shot someone does try this out, I would be interested in any suggestions you might have.
Also, if anyone has their own killer carrot soup of recipe, please post. I try all sorts of stuff in the kitchen and I am always looking for new exciting ideas.
Note to single young males. If you are a single young male, and at some point you want to impress a would-be partner, learn to cook at least one out-of-the-ball-park meal. Now a soup is not a meal, but if prepared well and paired correctly with the main course, it sets the winning tone for the entire meal.
CARROT SOUP
Expect to take at best 1 hour total (chopping and cooking) to get this soup made. (If you are not handy with a knife in the kitchen, add an hour).
*Ingredients:
Butter, 4 Tablespoons
Olive oil, 1/4 cup
Onion, 2 medium or 1 large
Celery stalk, 2 large
Carrots, 5 lbs
Leaks, 3 large or 4 medium
Baking Potato, 1 large or 2 medium
Chicken stock, 1 ½ to 2 quarts (you can use vegetable stock if desired)
Fresh Ginger root, minced 3 - 4 teaspoons OR 2 -3 Tablespoons dry powder ginger
Turmeric, up to ¼ teaspoon (optional)
Heavy (or regular) Cream OR thick plain yogurt, ½ cup+ (optional)
Fresh Chivies OR Cilantro, chopped about 3-4 Tablespoons
Salt
Pepper
Oyster crackers or bread sticks
Corn Starch (sometimes called corn flour) (optional)
*Equipment:
Kitchen measuring spoons and cups
Cutting board
Sharp kitchen knife
Carrot/potato peeler
Sink with cold water
Range (electric or gas)
8 QT pot with lid
Immersion blender (sometimes called a Hand Held Blender) or food processor. (Note: If you don’t have one of these, stop, find another recipe).
Large wooden stirring spoon (flat edge)
Small grater (for Ginger and Nutmeg)
Soup ladle
Soup bowls
Soup spoons
Napkins, cloth preferred
*Tips on buying Ingredients:
Olive oil – I use regular olive oil. I do not think that virgin olive oil works well for cooking. If you want you can use regular cooking oil (vegetable) or peanut oil. If you go this route, do not over measure. (Within reason, you can over use regular olive oil or butter, not so much with regular cooking oil or peanut oil.)
Onions – when you are cooking there is no need to pay extra for sweet onions. Regular yellow or red onions work great and are usually cheaper.
Celery – test (taste) your celery before cooking. I do not use bitter celery.
Carrots – I like to get fresh medium unpeeled carrots. Try to avoid oversized carrots; they tend not to taste right. Also I am not a big fan of supermarket pre-peeled carrots. You can taste the difference between a freshly peeled carrot and a pre-peeled one.
Baking Potato – for this recipe stay away from sweet potato, or small young potatoes. A regular inexpensive baking potato works great. Note: if you see a green or greenish color under the potato skin, do not buy it. It does not mean that the potato is not “ripe”. What you are seeing is solanine. Besides being bitter, enough of the stuff is poisonous. If you have to use a potato with a green tint, make sure that you remove as much of the green material as you can before cooking or eating.
Chicken stock – Broth is not STOCK. Chicken broth will not work very well as a foundational base for cooking. You can heat broth and consume it as is just fine. You cannot (or should not) do that with stock.
*Chopping:
Onions.
Peel and dice the onions into ¼ to ½ inch cubes.
Celery.
Wash, trim and cut the celery into ½ to 1 inch lengths.
Carrots.
Trim, peel and cut the carrots into 1 inch lengths.
Leeks.
Trim, wash (thoroughly wash each leaf under cold water. Leeks tend to have dirt (earth) deep inside their leaves) and cut into 1 inch lengths. I like to trim just up to the point where the leek leaf starts to turn green. You can trim past that point and include the darker green parts of the leaf, but that will make the soup taste just a little bitter (the taste is slight and some people like the taste). The darker green parts will change the final color of the soup. Most people like to see a nice orange color to their carrot. Green can turn them off. (If you do use the dark green parts of the leak you can always call your soup a leek soup with carrots. It will go over better with the patrons).
Potatoes.
Wash and trim as needed. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Leave skin on (unless it is green).
*Cooking
Step 1.
Place 8 QT pot on medium heat and warm butter and olive oil. (Do not over heat or burn olive oil).
Step 2.
Add onion and celery and cook covered on a low to medium heat for about 6 - 8 minutes until soft. Stir frequently while cooking. You want the onions to just start turning translucent. Optional: When done, add ¼ teaspoon Turmeric, stir and mix for one minute.
Step 3.
Add carrots, leaks and potatoes and cook covered on a medium heat for about 10 minutes until soft. Stir frequently while cooking. Add additional butter or oil if needed. (You want a light coating of oils over the ingredients at this point).
Step 4.
Add 1 ½ quarts of chicken or vegetable stock (hold ½ quarts back) and ½ of your ginger. Bring to a slight boil, turn heat to simmer/low, cover and simmer cook for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Step 5.
When carrots, leaks and potatoes are soft and fully cooked (not over cooked), using a hand held blender or food processor puree the mixture. You want to get to a very smooth texture.
Step 6.
If your soup is too thick for your taste, slowly add and stir additional chicken or vegetable stock until you get to your preferred soup thickness.
If your soup is not thick enough for your taste, thoroughly dissolve 2 tablespoons of corn starch in 3 tablespoons of cold water to make a slurry. Bring the soup to a boil and then turn down heat so that it is just below the boiling point. Add and stir in the slurry. Wait 2 minutes and then turn the heat off or to very low. Stir soup and wait 10 minutes. Test soup. Repeat thickening process as desired. Note that if you over heat (boil the soup) from this point out you could boil away the thicken effects of the corn starch and you could bring out the taste of the corn starch in your soup!
Step 7.
Session with salt and pepper to taste. (I use about ½ tablespoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of fresh ground pepper corns.)
Step. 8.
Add and stir in, to taste, remaining ginger.
*Presentation
Do not over heat the soup.
Pour soup in bowl.
Add 1 -2 tablespoons of regular or heavy cream or thick plain yogurt to the center of the soup
Add a pinch or two of chopped fresh Chivies or Cilantro. (I like chivies).
Serve with Oyster or other soup crackers/bread sticks.
*Storage
In an air tight container you can freeze the soup. (Because of the potatoes and how they react to freezing, a previously frozen carrot soup can taste a little different when thawed.)
