Season's Greetings w/ Carrot Soup

Season's Greetings from Carmel Lavender. Here at the farm, it is Christmas Eve, and we wish everyone a happy Holiday Season, and a very joyful New Year.

We were fortunate last week to be treated to a mini snow flurry up here at 1700 feet, bringing a white Christmas to us a week early. These things are ephemeral, and it didn't last long, but I took some photos and thought I would share them with you today, along with my recipe for cream of carrot soup!


In this photo, you can see the lavender fields sleeping under the snow. Don't worry, they will be fine. Within a few hours, the snow would be gone anyhow. But it was sure beautiful while it lasted. I am fortunate to have been here to see it.

Cream of Carrot Soup

I would like to share my latest culinary experiment. As you can see, winter has finally come to the farm. The tomatoes, which were actually still producing in early December, have finally succumb to the frost. Within one day of the first frost, the basil was gone. It was amazing it had lasted so long as it was. My turnips and cabbage are not yet ready to harvest. So what I have most of right now are carrots. And lots of them! I planted these last spring, and they are quite large. So I thought I would try my hand at adapting a favorite recipe I make for cream of squash soup, but use carrots instead. The results were amazing! I used real cream, but if you use soy milk instead, it would be entirely vegan!

What you will need:

• Olive Oil
• Onion
• Water
• Carrots
• Garlic
• Ginger root
• Cream (or soy milk)
• Paprika

The ingredients are listed above in the order they are added. I must apologize in advance for the lack of measurements. The fact is that I don't use them. Why? Well, because eating is very much a matter of mood. The proportions change with the mood. But here are some guidelines I used. A large bowl of chopped carrots is about 1 quart of volume. Olive oil is maybe a few tablespoons. I use an entire onion, because the more onion, the sweeter the soup, and I want it sweet. Use less if you don't like it as sweet. The ginger root is metered by smelling the soup as you grate the root into it, while stirring occasionally. Stop when the soup smells "gingery" enough. And the paprika is simply to add a dash of color and zip at the end. So very small quantities.

First, I picked a large bowl of carrots and cleaned them. I cut them into chunks about 1 inch long, and set them aside. I did not bother to peel them. First, the skin is nutritious. If nature intended us to eat carrots without skin, they would grow naked. This is all part of whole food eating. Second, it is work. Why make work out of taking the nutrition out of your food?

Next I got a large soup bowl. Put a thin layer of olive oil at the bottom, and saute an onion. In case it isn't obvious, chop the carrot into small 1/4 inch pieces before placing into the oil. When the onions become translucent, they are ready.

Then add about a 1 to 2 pints of water and the carrots. You want the water to just cover the carrots maybe 1/2 to 1 inch higher than where the carrots would fill the pot w/o the water. The more water, the runnier the soup, the less water, the thicker the soup. I like thicker soup, so I just cover the carrots with water. Let the pot boil, then reduce temp so that it simmers. Let simmer until the carrots start to melt. You should be able to easily mash a carrot with a fork with very little effort when it is done. Don't be impatient. Let the heat do the work for you! I also add a few minced cloves of garlic at this point.

While the carrots are simmering, grate a peeled ginger root into the soup. I used a peeler to get the skin off (yes I know what I said about holistic food, but the ginger root skin is too tough and won't melt when you cook it, but feel free to keep the skin if you don't mind some bits of ginger skin in your soup). Grate some root, stir it in. Then smell the soup. Gingery enough? No? Add some more until the ginger smell is apparent. I used about two to three inches of a fairly large root. Don't be shy! Ginger not only tastes great, but it is healthful too.

Once the soup has cooked sufficiently (at least an hour or two), then puree the soup in a blender. This will most likely need to be done in batches unless you have a humongous blender or are making a tiny amount of soup. Once all the soup is blended, put it all back into the soup pot, and add the cream. I add cream until the color starts to turn just a bit pale, but not too much. You also want to make sure the consistency stays thick enough. I put about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cream to achieve this. Remember, cream is very rich. Taste as you add if you aren't comfortable w/ the color guidelines.

At this point, I usually turn the heat off. The soup is pretty hot, and you can burn the cream. But if you want, you can cook it on low for another 10 minutes or so, but take care to stir continuously so the cream doesn't burn. Once the cream is added, you have to be careful.

Serve into bowls, and sprinkle just a pinch of paprika on the top to give a nice dusting of red color. Not too much, unless you really want it spicy. Though consider carefully not to overpower the ginger. Less ginger, more paprika will be okay. If you have made it really gingery, then you're not going to want to complicate the ginger with too much paprika.

Now enjoy! Mmmm. Should be very nice treat on a cold winter night. Happy Holidays.

On Christmas Eve, a family of wild turkeys came to visit us. I watched them through the window as my pumpkins roasted for the pies I will be making tonight. Good thing for them we're eating a traditional Bulgarian vegetarian Christmas eve meal tonight!