Crème de carotte Soup

Crème de carotte Soup
Dorcas Annette Walker

Now before you think I have gone and jumped off the deep end with my French soup stick with me for a minute, okay? It really is all my sister’s fault- thankfully she lives up in Pennsylvania and doesn’t read my column. I was talking to Lois on the phone over the weekend and like usual we got around to discussing food when I mentioned that I was wishing I had a new soup recipe since I’ve already gone through all my soup recipes a couple of times this winter. My sister, who has toured Europe and has become quite the gourmet cook, began raving about a French carrot soup that she absolutely loves. Right now when it feels like winter is going to last forever and you are simply itching for some warm spring weather a person is liable to do something plum crazy. So I decided to try her soup.

My meat and potato husband grunted in disbelief when I first dished up my French soup. He asked me what in the world it was supposed to be, but after filling his soup full of crackers like he always does- just don’t tell the French- and taking a cautious taste he said that it wasn’t at all bad and even had a second helping. Europeans don’t eat chunky soups like we Americans do. Instead all their soups are pureed. When I informed Dana of that fact, since he wanted to know why there wasn’t anything solid in the soup, he replied that pureeing French soup was okay, but to please leave my other regular soups nice and chunky. I think he was afraid that I was going European on him. I agreed since I hate to think what pureeing would do to my wonderful homemade vegetable soup. So if the winter blues have hit you try my Crème de carotte Soup.

The Crème de carotte Soup has a summery creamy mild carrot taste and is ideal for luncheons. This smooth colorful European soup is a healthy way to tide a person over the winter, although it would be good year round. You can also substitute chicken broth or stock instead of water. Preparation time for my Crème de carotte Soup is about an hour and this recipe serves eight.

Crème de carotte Soup

2 lbs carrots or 5 c peeled and chunked
2 large potatoes peeled and chunked
4 medium onions peeled and chunked
1 tb fresh ginger peeled and minced or grated
1 tsp salt
2 bay leaves (optional)
10 c water
½ c evaporated milk
1 tb sugar
Pepper
Nutmeg

In a large kettle cook the potatoes, carrots, onions, and ginger with salt in water until soft. Let cool a bit. Puree everything until smooth being careful to only fill the blender or food processor half full as hot food expands quickly when pureeing. Pour back into the kettle and stir in the milk and sugar. Sprinkle pepper to taste and bring back to a boil. Let simmer for fifteen minutes. Serve hot with thick slices of French or homemade bread. Garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg!

Weekly tip: Since most recipes call for only a small amount of fresh ginger and one ginger root goes a long ways for storage peel the entire root, chop in a blender or food processor with a small amount of water, and then pour into an ice cube tray and freeze!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcaswalker@twlakes.net. For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com