Cream of Carrot Soup

cream of carrot soup
Cream of Carrot Soup

I love carrots – after parsnips, they are my favorite root vegetable (apart from potatoes, sweet potatoes, and those kinds of tubers) to roast. Whenever I see crudités, I head for the carrots first. I’ve eaten more than my share of carrots at recital receptions, and I never tire of them. I do find packaged “baby carrots” to be a bit amusing – big carrots whittled down to become small carrots (I have no idea how they do it exactly). Actual baby carrots right out of the ground are a totally different creature and are sweet like candy.

I made a carrot cake the other day, from Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks site. It’s a wonderful cake, very earthy and sweetened with bananas and dates – there’s no refined sugar (or unrefined sugar, actually – it’s just fruit sweetened) in this carrot cake. It’s one of my favorite things about this cake.

carrot cake
Carrot cake from 101 Cookbooks

I did make a maple syrup sweetened mascarpone frosting for it, but after tasting the whole shebang, I found it made the whole thing too sweet, so I scraped a lot of it off.  There’s only a thin layer now, and it’s perfect.

After I made this carrot cake, I had a bunch of carrots left over, so I decided to make soup out of them. I whipped up this cream of carrot soup the other day and it turned out to be simply amazing. It’s basically carrots and onions cooking in milk and then pureed. Cooking vegetables in milk and pureeing them is one of my base recipes – it works well with broccoli, cauliflower, root vegetables, and even dark leafy greens.

My bet is that one could make this dairy free by using homemade almond milk in place of the cow’s milk. Carrots and almonds go so well together. Maybe garnishing the soup with dukkah would be nice in that case, too!

Cream of Carrot Soup

1/4 white onion, preferably organic, chopped
carrots, preferably organic, washed and grated enough to make 1.5 cups
1 tbs unsalted grass-fed butter (I like using Kerrygold)
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
juice from 1/2 orange
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt/kosher salt
1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper/red pepper flakes
2 c. whole milk (mine is raw, but any kind of grass-fed milk would work just fine)
salt and pepper to taste
whole milk yogurt (I used raw yogurt, but regular whole milk yogurt would work, as would strained yogurt)
za’atar (optional, but delicious; fresh thyme leaves would be an alternative)

Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then add the chopped onion. Cook for a few minutes until softened, and add the grated carrots. Cook for a few minutes until they soften, too.

Add the olive oil and stir until combined. Squeeze half the juice of the orange (so, juice from 1/4 of an orange) onto the onions and carrots. Add salt and sprinkle on the Aleppo pepper.

Add the milk and combine everything in the pan together. Turn the heat down on low (do not let this mixture boil), put a lid on the pan, and simmer for 20-30 minutes until everything is soft. Note: you may have to place the lid on the pan at an angle if things are too hot, to let the steam out, and so as to not cause over-boiling (milk burns easily and smells terrible when it does).

Take the pan off the heat and blend everything in the pot with a stick blender (you could do this with a regular blender, too, but it’s just more work). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and top with yogurt and za’atar (optional) to taste and squeeze a little more orange juice onto the soup.

Serves 1-2 people.

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

The Simplest Mayonnaise Technique

Last summer, I came upon a curious way to make mayonnaise. Described on the Seeds of Nutrition blog, it sounded incredible – it promised smooth, creamy mayonnaise that didn’t involve any tedious drizzling of oil, and it utilized a stick blender put it all together. It also claimed to do it in a flash.  Whoa.

I watched the video of the process and was truly amazed. I promised myself I’d try it out. Finally, eight months later, I gave it a shot… and was fully impressed.  I will never make mayonnaise another way, if I can help it.

One of the reasons I was so impressed by this method is that it is painfully simple in both concept and execution. I’ve made mayo a couple other ways, and both had their pitfalls. The first time, I did it by hand; it turned out just fine, but it sure was tiring.  I remember taking a number of breaks during the process because at times my upper arm felt like it was on fire!

The second time I made mayonnaise was with a blender. I thought the opening in the top of the lid would allow me to easily drip in the oil while the blades were spinning, no fuss no muss. My distinct memory is of how much splatter there was – all over the cabinets, counter, and even on the floor.  In my hair. Not a pretty sight.

So, when I was putting together things for the fermentation workshop I recently taught, fermented mayo came to mind.  I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone by making it – trying out this new technique and expanding my fermentation repertoire.  Why ferment this mayonnaise?  To preserve it, if course!  Fermenting it with whey will extend its life into months rather than weeks. It turned out perfectly.

I chose to use the mayonnaise recipe in Nourishing Traditions. I used a 50/50 ratio of extra virgin olive oil and expeller-pressed sunflower oil.  I also used dijon mustard, fresh organic lemon juice, sea salt, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk.  Everything was at room temperature, too (this is crucial).

I believe that you could use any mayonnaise recipe with this blending method – I’ve seen other mayonnaise recipes that utilize the stick blender, and use slightly different ingredients (addition of vinegar, different oils, etc.).

I’m so glad to have such an easy recipe.  It’s so quick to make, and I plan to use it in my favorite chicken salad recipe (instead of Hellman’s or Kraft, which contain oils I don’t want to consume).

I’d love to know how this method suits you when making mayonnaise, so please feel free to share in the comments or send me an email. Good luck!

This post is participating in Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.