carrot soup Archives ⋆ Our Growing Paynes

Yesterday was a much needed day for so many people. There has been so much rhetoric and hatred that seemed to have been winning out and leaving a lot of us feeling adrift and shocked. But yesterday was an historic day. It was a day that millions across the world stood up peacefully and said we don’t accept that. The reports today are estimating that nearly 3 million in the US alone showed up which made it the most represented protest in US history.

I know it was called the Women’s March but it was inspiring to see that men and children joined in as well and that we are standing up together and rejecting the hate, rejecting the notion that we are going to be dragged backwards. I’m afraid we will for awhile but I hope that we will not be silenced and we will fight to move our rights forward for all.

In our little town we had a turnout of about 500 people. It was fabulous, though as I looked round you could see people of my parent’s generation and all I could think was that they must be so irritated they have to march for this again. Signs around the world definitely bore this out.

Here are some of my photos of yesterday to share with you.

I think if we can keep this positivity and using the carrot instead of the stick we can do so much. Well, except voting. That’s going to be a very big stick.

In the middle of tax season starting and standing up for ourselves I am finding time here and there to be creative in the kitchen. Not as much as I’d like but it’s that time of the year!

We had great success with the carrots in the garden. They came out massive but very sweet and tender. There was the last large one to use up and because the kids love soup this time of the year I made a carrot ginger soup. There are a lot of recipes out there with orange juice but that would that would make this soup super sweet so I went the savory route.

In a saucepan heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Chop up about half a red onion. You want to end up with a 1/2 cup/4oz or so. Finely chop a couple of garlic cloves. Begin to saute while you cube the carrot. Obviously if you don’t have a massive carrot, cube 4-6 of them depending on size. Add the carrot to the saucepan.

Add enough chicken stock to cover the carrots and bring to a simmer. Grate fresh ginger into the pan. I did about an inch/2.5cm square. Then add a small handful of fresh tarragon.

I seasoned this with sea salt and pepper. I wanted a little kick to this so I added a bit of red pepper flakes. Once the carrots are cooked through puree and add back onto the heat. Add a cup of cream and slowing heat that through.

Add a dollop of sour cream and enjoy with your favourite bread.

I sincerely hope that yesterday is the beginning of hope and positivity where we find our strength to stand up against the drumming of fear.

The sun will be starting it’s journey back our way today. This makes me happy. I’m not a fan of the shorter days. After getting tired of not being seen walking the dogs we bought them LED lights to hang from their collars. They are super bright so that should help with the close calls trying to get across the roads. Luckily they don’t seem to bother the dogs and they have an added benefit of lighting up the area they are sniffing so I can see if they are about to eat something they shouldn’t!

With all that has been going on the past few weeks I lost track what was in the fridge. I have a bad habit of buying ingredients when we already have them because I don’t see them in there! At some point we bought a bunch of carrots and I needed to use them up. I have been wanting to try a carrot soup. It’s funny growing up the only way I liked carrots was raw. But tastes change.

I should say I only liked organic ones. I don’t know what it is but conventional carrots are always dry to me and not as sweet. I know for most things the taste difference isn’t huge between organic and conventional but things like tomatoes and carrots I find a big difference. Organic carrots seem to have more water and sweetness to them.

I found this carrot soup recipe that looked really good and adjusted it to the number of servings we needed. Their recipe said it would be 8 servings but I made what I thought was enough for 4 but it was really closer to 8 so who knows how much soup the original recipe would have made.

Finely chop a 1/4 of a large red onion and saute in about 2 tablespoons of butter.

While the onion is cooking peel and slice 3-4 medium sized carrots. You want at least two cups of sliced carrots. I think I ended up with nearly 3 cups. Add them to the onion and stir well then add 2 cups of homemade chicken stock. As it is coming to a boil grate about 2 inches of fresh ginger into the soup, season with salt and pepper, then stir well. Simmer until the carrots are tender and cooked. This took about 45 minutes for the carrots I had. Then use an immersion blender or a regular blender to blend all the ingredients. Put back on the heat and add 1/2 a cup of heavy cream.

Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed and warm up as needed. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Full of flavour without much difficulty. I discovered a few days later that it was very good cold as well so I will be having this in the summer as a light meal or a first course. If I had some I would have garnished this dish with chives and the chive flowers. Another thing to add in the summer when the garden is flourishing. 6 more months! Not that we’re counting or anything. 🙂

Our Growing Paynes

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Tag Archives: carrot soup

Using the Carrot and Keeping Things Positive

Carrot Ginger Soup