Raising the Root

While turning my beds over this past weekend, I found a small crop of carrots that somehow managed to escape last year’s harvest.  Those stubborn little things survived the winter and were just waiting for me like an impatient child. “It’s about time,” they said, “It’s been freezing out here!”

OK, admittedly not the prettiest carrots you've ever seen, but they will make great soup!

These carrots had, indeed, frozen and thawed, frozen and thawed, frozen and thawed, over and over throughout the winter.  As a result, the skinny ones were flimsy, and the large ones were very woody in the middle.  I couldn’t possibly chop them up to put on a salad, but they had too much life left to be doomed to the compost bin.  The solution?  Soup!  Soups and stews are always a great way to take advantage of veggies that aren’t bad, but aren’t quite at their freshest, either.

Yesterday it snowed, and the temperatures dipped to a chilly 32 during the day.  It seemed the perfect time to turn my tenacious carrots into a belly-warming dinner.  I happened to also have a head of not-so-fresh cauliflower on hand, so I supplemented my carrot crop with some of that, but you could easily make this recipe with 4 cups of carrots (or 4 cups of cauliflower).  Although I think 2 teaspoons of curry powder is just about right for this amount of soup, you will probably want to add 1 teaspoon and taste it before dumping the whole amount in–we tend to eat spicy! 

Curried Carrot-Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ½ medium sweet yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 2 cups carrot, peeled and diced
• 2 cups cauliflower florets, diced (about half a head – you can include some of the small stems here, too)
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 2 teaspoon medium curry powder (or to taste–we eat spicy in my house!)
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 ½ cups chicken or veggie stock (homemade if you have it)
• 1 cup milk

Cauliflower and carrots, all chopped and ready to be cooked

Directions:

• Add the garlic and ginger to the bowl of your food processor and pulse several times to mince (or do it with your knife).  Set aside.
• In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the stock with the flour.  Set aside.
• Heat olive oil and butter in a large wide-bottomed pot over medium heat.  Add onions and sauté, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add ginger and garlic and cook for a minute or two more.  Add carrots and cauliflower, and sauté 6-7 minutes more.
• Add curry powder, cumin, and salt and pepper.  Stir well.  Add the rest of the stock, raise heat to medium high, and cover.  Once the mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.  (If you want a super smooth texture, you’ll want to cook the veggies until they are downright mushy.  For a small bits of veggie in your soup, stop when they still resist to piercing them with a fork just a bit.)
• Carfeully puree mixture in a food processor or blender, in batches.  Return to pot.
• Bring heat back to medium high.  Whisk together the remaining stock and flour, and whisk into the soup.  Add milk, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.  Thin with more stock, milk, or water, if desired.

Makes 4-5 cups.

Try garnishing with one of these:

• A drizzle of sour cream or plain yogurt pureed with fresh chives or dill (thin with milk if necessary)
• Toasted slivered almonds or pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• Raisins or dried cranberries or cherries
• Croutons (homemade are the best)

Curried Carrot and Cauliflower Soup ~ Delish!