Rich and Creamy Carrot Soup

Have you ever heard of rainbow carrots?  I hadn’t until I found out we would get some in our CSA.  As we walked the rows our very first week, when there was nothing but rhubarb and greens, Nels and Becky told us what each plant would be and we laughed when they said rainbow carrots.  “Rainbow?”  “Yep, not just orange, rainbow.”  I promptly forgot that little bit of information until we got our first carrots a couple weeks ago and they came in a myriad of pretty colors.  I decided that since my swiss chard soup was such a huge success, I’d try making soup with carrots too.  This carrot soup was so creamy and rich, you’d think it was full of tons of butter and cream, but it’s not!  Just 1/2 TBS butter and 2% milk.  So it’s rich and healthy.

I first served it as a cold soup, perfect for a hot day.  Although I thought it was good cold (as a side dish with half a sandwich), when I tried to give it to Eric for lunch, he thought it was like eating baby food.  Of course, I was lazy and just handed him the tupperware of soup and a spoon.  If I had served it like the picture he probably would have liked it better.  It’s delicious as a hot soup so either way works great.  I don’t buy creme fraiche in the store, it’s to easy to make a pretty tasty version of homemade creme fraiche.  Oh, and the curry powder totally makes this soup, so don’t skip it.  I love curry with carrots!  By the way, today I am working on a crazy molecular cooking challenge, so check in Wednesday to see what will hopefully be a work of art!

Rich and Creamy Carrot Soup

Ingredients

2 cups chopped carrots
1/2 TBS butter
1 tsp honey
1/4 tsp curry powder
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 TBS creme fraiche
1/2 tsp total of rosemary, thyme, chives
onion greens

Instructions

Place carrots butter honey and curry powder in a pot and stir over medium heat until butter is melted and carrots are well coated.  Add milk and let simmer 20 minutes until carrots are very soft.  Stir occaisionally and turn down heat if it begins to bubble over or stick to bottom of pot.

Let cool a little and then puree in a food processor.  Pass through a fine seive for a smooth consistancy.  Refrigerate.

Mix creme fraiche with herbs.  Swirl 1/2 TBS creme fraiche into each bowl of soup.  Sprinkle with thinly sliced onion greens.

Approximate cost/serving: It’s hard to figure out cost with our CSA which provided both the carrots and onion greens, but using carrots from the store this comes out to about $1 per bowl of soup.

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: It is vegetarian, to make it vegan use carrot juice rather than milk, olive oil for butter and skip the creme fraiche.  Definitely gluten free.