Look at These F***ing Carrots!

I have not been doing much of actual cooking lately, the type of cooking where you combine a list of ingredients and the mix of their different tastes, textures and flavors make something more than the mere sum of the parts. But June Gloom - a weather pattern in southern California which brings weeks of cloudy, drizzly, cool days - has been getting me down. After seven years in Arizona, two weeks without sunshine are definitely giving me seasonal depression symptoms. So I decided to cook myself a soup, with spring ingredients to warm my old bones. How about carrot soup? Why not?

A quick search of the interwebs lead me to this excitingly looking Carrot-Ginger-Lemon soup. And after the acquisition of this beautiful bunch of carrots from the Farmer's Market I was all set to go.

Sometimes recipes drive me crazy. Now, I understand that ingredients should be in certain proportions but if the recipe asks for 1 1/2 cups of onion what are you supposed to do with the 1/3 unused onion you are left with? Or what are you to do with the 1/2 red pepper left over from the recipe which asks for 1/2 cup of chopped pepper? I much prefer recipes which ask for 1 onion or one pepper or two tomatoes, and of course the taste will vary a bit every time you make the recipe but, for a soup, is that so crucial? Anyways, here is the recipe is re-written in whole ingredients:

Carrot Soup with Ginger and Lemon
1/4 C butter
1 medium/big onion, chopped
1 generous Tbs finely chopped ginger
1-2 tsp finely chopped garlic
the peel of 1 lemon, finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
3-4 C sliced carrots
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
3-4 C stock (chicken or veggie)

For garnish: yogurt/sour cream and boiled brown rice
Yields: 4-6 servings

Saute onions in butter for 4 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and saute another 2 minutes. Add carrots, tomatoes and lemon peel and saute another minute. Add the stock and boil till carrots are tender (~20 minutes). Pure in batches in blender and return to pot. Bring to simmer, add lemon juice and season to taste with salt and a bit of black pepper. Serve with yogut or sour cream. I added about half a cup of brown rice to give it more substance too - it works great! This soup is fantastic both hot or cold. After a day the ginger lends it a bit of spiciness and the flavors have blended deliciously. A fantastic entry into spring! Yum!

What do you do with cauliflower?

Cauliflower is one of these autumn vegetables that I always buy with excitement - "Oh, look, it's cauliflower season again!". But then I bring it home and I can never quite figure out what to do with it. So the poor things sits in the fridge until it gets completely black and only a curry can save it. But curries are not happening very often these days. My family makes awesome pickled cauliflower but that's just Too Much Work for me these day. Some day. May be.

The same scenario played out this week again and I was stuck with a head of cauliflower. But then I came across this recipe for a cauliflower soup on Smitten Kitchen and I was saved!

Cauliflower Soup

1 head cauliflower, broken into florettes
3 C vegetarian chicken broth
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic gloves, chopped
1 Tbs butter
1/4 - 1/3 cup shredded cheese
2 Tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


Notes on the ingredients: The vegetarian chicken broth was recommended to me by a friend who found it in the bulk bins at Sunflower. It has a mild flavor and is low in sodium. I used 1 Tbs of broth powder per cup of water. I am guessing vegetable broth would work as well. Also, the original recipe asked for Parmesan cheese, but I only had monterey jack. I guess Parmesan might work better as it is more flavorfull but I still liked the result.

Saute the onion in the olive oil until soft. Add the garlic and saute for another couple of minutes. Add the cauliflower and the broth and bring to boil. Simmer for ~15 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft and falling apart. Let the soup cool for a while. Take out some (1/5 to 1/4) of the cauliflower in a bowl and blend the remaining soup until smooth. Return the whole cauliflower to the soup, add the butter and the cheese, and heat up again. The complicated cauliflower juggling is because I like to have something chewable in my soup, so if you'd rather just pure the whole thing, I say do it. Add more water if the soup ends up too thick for your taste. Finally, add salt and a little bit of black pepper. Makes...kind of a lot. I served it sprinkled with shredded cheese and a bit of parsley.

I have been dishing out soup after soup but in all honesty it really isn't all that cold in Arizona yet. I just wish it was cold. Come November I really miss the rustle of dry leaves and the foggy autumn nights. I pull out my coat and scarf, start wearing sweaters and cooking soups. Yet, the cold refuses to come. Oh, well.

'Tis the Season

Halloween came and passed without my vigorous participation this year (again) as I was on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, working. I was a bit disappointed that no one even noticed that I was wearing my special "Batty" Halloween t-shirt (which for full disclosure I thought meant "a little bat" when I bought it). And since I was 5,000 miles too far to participate in the annual pumpkin carving event at my house, you get a pumpkin picture from last year.

Inspired by Halloween, fall, pumpkins at the grocery store and most of all, by an oh so yummy pumpkin soup ("sopa de zapallo") I had at the El Adobe restaurant (pictured here with my bowl of soup) in San Pedro de Atacama, this pumpkin soup will warm you up on a chilly autumn night. Instead of the usual flavor pairing of with nutmeg and other pie-reminescent spices, here pumpkin is paired with thyme and parsley and a generous addition of black pepper gives it some extra heat:

Pumpkin Soup

2 C water
2 C pumpkin puree (one 14 oz can)
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 - 1 tsp thyme, fresh or dry, chopped
1 -2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 C milk
5-10 whole black peppercorns
a little olive oil
salt to taste

Saute the onion with a little olive oil for a few minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, thyme and peppercorns, stir, saute for another minute. Add the pumpkin pure, stir. Add the water, stir. Add the salt and taste. Bring to boil, turn down the heat and simmer for ~5-10 minutes. Let it cool down for a few minutes and then blend it up. Return to the stove, add the milk and bring to boil again. Serve warm, with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of parsley, maybe some freshly ground black pepper and some bread. Feeds approximately 4.

Enjoy! I hope it warms you up as much as it warmed me in San Pedro. For the record, I begged the waiter for the recipe, but he wouldn't cave in. The recipe above is based on a pumpkin soup listed on Allrecipes.com but it tastes pretty close to the real thing.