Serranía Kitchen - recipes from around the world

I had a load of carrots in the fridge - about a kilo. "How about a carrot soup?" I thought.

I did some research and found several recipes. I looked at what else I had in the fridge and larder and combined the best bits from the recipes I found, with some added variations of my own to make it suitable for vegans.

My ingredients [Photo by Paul Whitelock]    

Pre-amble

You can make this creamy carrot soup in just 30 minutes with basic pantry ingredients.

Blending fresh carrots with onion, thyme, and garlic creates a rich, slightly sweet base.  

Optional crispy, cheesy toast dippers are easy to make by baking baguette with olive oil and parmesan.

The Basics of Carrot Soup

The key to carrot soup is, unsurprisingly, the carrots. If you can, try to get a few bundles of the smaller carrots with the stems still on. I find the bulk bags of de-stemmed carrots are less sweet.

Be sure to start cooking your vegetables over a medium heat so they don’t brown. If the onions get brown, it can add some slightly bitter notes to the soup and overpower the sweet carrots. If you do get a few brown onion bits, just scoop them out and discard.

Cook in a large saucepan [Paul Whitelock]    

Storing and Freezing Carrot Soup

Soups freeze well, and this carrot version is no different. Frozen carrot soup will store for up to 6 months and reheats perfectly, from frozen, on the cooker hob over low heat.

Pablo's Carrot Soup - Vegan

Prep Time: 5 mins     Cooking Time: 30 mins     Total Time: 35 mins

Servings: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

For the soup:

2 tablespoons vegetable/olive oil
1 large leek, chopped
2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 carton soya milk

For the garnish:

Paprika
Fresh chives, minced

I opted to forgo the cheese dippers and chose a pan rustico de nueces.

Method

• Cook the vegetables in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the oil and chopped leek. Cook until the leeks turn translucent, 3 to 4 minutes, but don't let them brown. Season with a pinch of salt.
• Add the carrots, garlic, and dried thyme, and stir together. Cook for 30 seconds, just until garlic becomes fragrant.
• Add the stock and bring mixture to a simmer. Cover and continue to simmer for 15 more minutes until the carrots are very tender.

    [Photos courtesy of Nick Evans]

Finish the soup:

• When the carrots are tender, use an immersion blender right in the pot to blend soup until smooth.
• If you don’t have an immersion blender, remove the soup from the heat and allow to cool until it isn’t steaming hot. Then, you can blend in batches in a standard blender and return it to your pot.
• Return the blended soup to low heat and season with salt and white pepper, if you wish.

    The blended soup [Nick Evans]

Serve the soup:

• Ladle the soup into bowls and swirl in about a tablespoon of heavy cream into each bowl. Garnish the soup with a sprinkle of paprika and fresh minced chives. 
• Leftover soup keeps well in the fridge for 5 days, or you can transfer it to freezer-safe ziptop bags and freeze it for up to six months. Reheat the soup gently over low heat on the stovetop.

Pablo's vegan carrot soup [Paul Whitelock]    

To drink:

I chose a German Weissbier, in this case Franziskaner, available from Supeco supermarkets (Carrefour).

Note: Don’t freeze the soup if you’ve added cream to it, because it will most likely separate. In theory, it would taste the same once it is reheated, but I prefer to stir in fresh cream when serving, and freeze the soup without the cream in it.

Nutrition Facts:

(per serving)
179 Calories
10g Fat
19g Carbohydrates
5g Protein

Other contributors

Joan Jacobson gave the basic recipe ★★★★★ 21 days ago.
"Loved this. My husband doesn't like onion, so I used 5 cloves garlic and omitted the onion, added a tsp of herbs de provenance (sic), and a full tsp of pepper instead of 1/2 and it tasted fantastic. Also a beautiful consistency."

Cher Lindsey made a half batch of this soup and cooked veggies in coconut oil and added curry, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder instead of fresh to this recipe. "I also added a couple of potatoes to thicken the soup. 

"I will make this again."

Pam added fresh parsley, fresh thyme, bay leaf (fished out before blending) a rinsed can of white kidney beans. "With the sauté onion I added 2 tsp of curry powder. Made the cheese toast with ciabatta rolls. This was an outstanding comforting meal! Thank you!"

© Pablo de Ronda

Thanks:

Cher Lindsey, Joan Jacobson, Nick Evans, Pam, Paul Whitelock

Pictures:

Nick Evans, Paul Whitelock

Tags:

carrots, carrot soup, Cher Lindsey, garlic, Joan Jacobson, leek, Nick Evans, olive oil, Pablo de Ronda, Pam, pan de nueces, Paul Whitelock,  salt, soya milk, thyme, vegan, vegetable oil, vegetable stock,