Carrot Soup (c)2011 LaDomestique.com

Last week I harvested about 50 carrots from my garden just outside Boulder, Colorado. This is my first year growing vegetables on my own, and I was so excited when sowing carrots back in April I forgot about succession planting. This means all my carrots were ready for harvest at the same time last week. It’s not a terrible problem- at least I have carrots to eat. However, if I was smart I would have planted a few carrots each week to harvest over a period of several weeks. Lesson learned. So, what to do with 8 pounds of carrots? Make carrot soup!

The carrots harvested during summer have the sweetest, most alive flavor. I think pureed vegetable soups are the bees knees and they can be frozen so there’s always something fantastic on hand for an easy meal. My first batch of carrot soup was so delicious it never made its way into the freezer.

Becoming proficient in cooking soup, especially pureed vegetable soups, is a basic cooking skill worth learning. I believe the true test of a good cook is talent for making flavorful, soulful soup. You’ve got to be present and patient. You’ve got to taste and adjust, which ties in with cooking intuitively. Also, you’ve got to use high quality (preferably local) ingredients at their peak of freshness. In the cookbook, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook, the first chapter covers stocks and soups. Martha devotes a section of this chapter to pureed vegetable soups, and I appreciate her philosophy on keeping the recipes simple so the flavor of the star vegetable is paramount. For my carrot soup today I started with her Carrot and Ginger Soup, adding my own touches based on inspiration from my garden and summer flavors.

The Carrot and Ginger Soup in Martha Stewart’s Cooking School involves sweating onion, garlic, and fresh ginger in butter with carrots, then simply boiling it all in water for a few minutes before pureeing the mixture. To add my own signature I stirred in about a teaspoon of Tan-Tan Moroccan seasoning (from Savory Spice Shop in Boulder) to taste. The seasoning includes spices like cinnamon, cayenne, paprika, cardamom, coriander, cumin, and others. The sweet/spicy character of the Tan-Tan works brilliantly with the carrot flavor.

The next bit of inspiration came from my garden where I’ve got an abundance of oregano growing. Though it is most commonly associated with Italian cuisine, oregano is used in Mexican and Spanish cooking. I enjoy the earthy, pungent flavor of oregano with the sweet carrot and a little lime juice to brighten the dish. This leads me to my last ingredient: lime juice.

I’m absolutely crazy for the aroma and flavor of limes. Late summer/early fall is the season for limes. I knew the bright acidity and floral aroma would combine beautifully with my carrot soup. To me, acidity found in lemons and limes acts in a similar way to salt when used in cooking. The lime juice squeezed over my soup just before serving actually made the soup taste more intensely carrot-y.

So, Carrot and Ginger Soup becomes Carrot Soup with ginger, Moroccan seasoning, oregano, and lime juice. The recipe I started with can be found in Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, or you can use this one from Food & Wine which is remarkably similar. Pureed vegetable soup is an opportunity to get to know exotic flavors. Why not give this Spicy Carrot Soup (made with harissa!) from MarthaStewart.com a try? Or you could be inspired by China cooking this Carrot Soup with Star Anise from Bon Appétit. Experiment with different fresh herbs from the garden and try combining sweet carrots with spicy chiles. Stimulate your senses and wake up your palate.

Next time you are at the local farmers market make sure and pick up a bunch of carrots for carrot soup. It’s the peak of the season and you are sure to be rewarded by their sweet, bright flavor. Thanks for reading!