Roasted carrot soup
I bought a bunch of carrots to make carrot halvah, but then Derek never got around to making it, so I decided to make carrot soup. I found this recipe for roasted carrot soup in Cook’s Illustrated “Best Light Recipe”. It calls for half chicken broth but I used all veg. broth.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the carrots, onion, 1 teaspoon of the oil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt on a rimmed baking sheet and then spread in an even layer. Roast until the vegetables are well browned and softened, stirring occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Transfer the roasted vegetables to a large saucepan. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil, cover, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the carrots soften further, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the wine and bay leaf; cook until the wine has reduced by half, about 1 minute. Add the broth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the soup is flavorful, about 5 minutes.
- Puree the mixture in a blender (or food processor) until smooth, and return to a clean saucepan. Add the half-and-half and warm over low heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (The soup can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Warm over low heat until hot; do not boil.)
My notes
This recipe is supposed to serve 4 but I wanted to serve 6 so I made 1.5 recipes. My carrots were maybe a bit crowded on the cookie sheet, and as a result perhaps they steamed a bit more than they should have, but they still got a bit caramelized.
I don’t like peeling carrots. It seems wasteful, and a bad idea nutritionally. Peter Berley says that the peels of old carrots are very bitter. Anyone know if this is true? Could I have left my carrots unpeeled? I wouldn’t mind a bit of bitterness in the soup. It already had a bit of bitterness from my homemade vegetable broth (the onion skins maybe?).
I used my stick blender to puree the soup. I’m sure it would have gotten silkier smooth if I had pureed it in a real blender, but the stick blender worked well enough. In my 1.5x recipe I used 1/4 cup cream and 1/2 cup lowfat milk. I’m sure it would have been good with more cream, but it was rich enough for me. I found the flavor a bit boring though. There was the bitterness from the vegetable broth and a bit of sweetness from the carrots and onions, but I thought the soup needed more of both, plus something hot/spicy, and some sourness. I added a little turmeric and cumin for earthy bitterness, and a lot of Aleppo pepper and some cayenne for heat. For sweetness I added a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon. When I served the soup I drizzled in some balsamic vinegar, which added the necessary sour element. In the end everyone seemed quite happy with the soup. It served 6 perfectly.
Derek liked the soup, but he thought it needed a lot more balsamic vinegar than I added, and when he added all that vinegar it turned the soup an unappealing brown color. He thought it needed some work. Maybe I could have added white balsamic vinegar?
Rating: B
Derek: B
austingardner said,
September 8, 2010 at 3:53 am
I looked at your recipe before reading your comments and thought, “looks a little boring.”
When I eat carrots right out of my garden the peel is sweet, but grocery store carrots seem to me to have bitter skins so I peel them.
I made a new dal today that had urad dal, moong dal and toor dal in it. It was called Swadisht Dal, which translates to mixed dal. Beside leaving out the hot peppers(which I missed), it was quite good. i bet it will even be better tomorrow.
Jenn said,
September 11, 2010 at 2:16 am
Oooh, you inspired me! I just made a delicious soup after reading your post. It’s winter here in Argentina, and anything warm and liquidy is pure heaven.
Regarding the carrots, I would taste them. Sometimes the outsides are bitter, sometimes they’re not. Also, I’ve heard that you should peel conventionally-grown carrots, as the peel harbors a lot of the pesticides and chemical residue. Organic carrots should be wonderful, if you don’t notice any off taste.
captious said,
September 26, 2010 at 4:56 am
Thanks Jenn for your thoughts on carrot peels. Glad the post inspired you!
Popular Blogs said,
September 19, 2010 at 4:15 am
I’ve been looking for a cool carrot recipe, thanks!