I pulled up the first few of my fall carrots last week. They are coming along quite well. Some of them are still very small, though, because they're too crowded. I'll have to thin them out and give them more room to grow.
I also picked the last of my dill. The plants have gone to seed and they won't make it through the winter.
This dill, along with some of my fresh chives and my "tester" carrots, became the star ingredients for a recipe I wanted to try: Carrot Dill Soup.The recipe called for boiling the carrots, but I decided to roast mine in an effort to up the flavor quotient. I put some of our homegrown garlic in there, too.
Afterwards, I added the roasted carrot-garlic combo to a pot containing sauteed onions and about 4 cups of chicken broth. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes and, once it cooled down a bit, I pressed the whole mixture through a food mill. The last step was to add milk, the chopped dill and chives.
So how did it turn out?
Well, this wasn't one of the best soups I've ever made. The flavor was good; I loved the fresh herbs in it. But the texture wasn't so great. There were still tiny bits of carrot and the soup didn't really taste creamy. I was disappointed with it.
My husband later asked if I had used the finest sieve attachment on the food mill, and, well, no, of course I didn't. I was still using the bigger attachment we used for mashing our tomatoes into sauce. I should have skipped the food mill altogether and put everything in the food processor.
I also used 2 percent milk, as the recipe called for, and I think that didn't help my cause. I was trying to stick with healthy ingredients, but I'm convinced that there are some recipes that are just unforgiving if you skimp on the fat. This is one of those recipes, I think.
Well, at least it looks like a good soup, doesn't it?
I see you used chicken broth/stock - next time try using water only - it'a a matter of personal preference but I find this lets the true carroty flavour come through.
ReplyDeletePut in a little bit of potato. Once thoroughly cooked, the potato just dissolves in starch and does a nice job of thickening up the broth without upping the animal fat quotient.
ReplyDeleteVery nice soup Christa. Great idea with roasting the carrots first.
ReplyDeleteOh, fall carrots?! Sound good, the soup as well! When did you sow them? I harvested lots of different sorts of carrots in my kitchen garden this summer. My favourite ones are "carrot purple haze", they look so pretty!
ReplyDeleteI made something similar out of my roasted butternut squash and potatoes, left over from thanksgiving. I put the vegetables through the food prcessor first, then added broth and seasoning. We like it. Now, I am going to try carrots like you did, the same way.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea to try it without the broth. I thought it would taste too bland without the broth, but maybe I will give it a try with just water next time.
Anonymous,
Good idea about using potato. Thanks!
Anita,
I sowed these carrots in August. I have seen the purple haze carrots; they are beautiful. I might try growing some next year.
Sandy,
Mmmm, butternut squash soup with potatoes sounds delicious. Butternut is one of my favorite fall/winter veggies.
Or instead of potatoe, substitute yogurt for the milk... I like to use Stonyfield, it doesn't have that weird taste that Dannon has...
ReplyDeleteIt will add zing!